The real story behind PM’s claim that he has scrapped a government diktat to sort your rubbish into seven different bins is revealed.

An EDDC source looks for the origins of the “seven bin” myth.

After deconstructing the semantic difference between “Consistency in Collections” and “Simpler Recycling”, and pouring over statements from DEFRA clarifying Rishi’s speech, it seems to come from no less an authority than the Daily Mail.

Every local authority has been awaiting 3 years now for a ministerial  decision on how to go forward with critical key aspects of the Environment Act 2021 on recycling.

Maybe they will have to wait even longer to find out whether Rishi wants to sift through the rubbish and find more “diktats” to scrap. Some of them carry cost implications! – Owl

What’s the real story of the Prime Minister’s 7 Bins?

There is a lot of publicity regarding a change in Government Policy on Recycling and Waste. 

Present policy and clarification after PM’s speech

The present policy that local authorities such our own East Devon District Council (EDDC) need to comply with is.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/30/section/57/enacted

Officers and Councillors have gone through the follow up statements from DEFRA after Wednesdays 20.09.2023 speech by the PM but cannot find any changes or clarifications.

The only difference that was spotted is that “Consistency in Collections” now becomes ‘Simpler Recycling’. (Just a change in title but unfortunately no details on what it means.)

There are some assurances that there will be no top-down dictated requirements and that Local Authorities will continue to have local decision making on recycling systems as long as they collect the “mandatory materials” which EDDC do. (So basically, it seems there isn’t any change)

What is the origin of the reference to seven bins?

But the question remains where this mythical “seven bins” come from? The only reference seems to have come from a recent ridiculous Daily Mail story, but a spokesman for East Devon District Council says that in numerous meetings in the last 3 years the idea of 7 bins was never an agenda item with DEFRA. If it had, the spokesperson for the Authority said they would have obviously strongly objected to this unworkable and totally impractical change in householder and operational practices!

Do we have clarity on helping reduce household waste?

So where are we with Government changes to the Recycling and Waste Policies? Are we any clearer on the direction of travel that this Government wants us to travel down, to help reduce household waste? We were told that the Prime Minister was going to make an “enormous announcement on Climate Change” and a substantial part of improving carbon emissions is how we deal with our waste.

Unfortunately, the only information provided was that we will not all be forced to have 7 bins!! Which wasn’t a consideration anyway!!

Every local authority has been awaiting 3 years now for a ministerial  decision on how we go forward with critical key aspects of the Environment Act 2021. Only this Tuesday  (the day before the PMs announcement) it was reported that the Environment Secretary will release more information ‘soon’ on the key changes required within the Environment Act 2021, including:

 Extended Producer Responsibility (Waste packaging producers paying for collections.)

This massive shift in government thinking will change the way Recycling and Waste will be financed. Rather than the funding from Council Tax and Government subsidy the funding will partly  come from the packaging companies.

The theory is the makers of the packaging will pay a fee to a new (yet to be set up) Authority to administer the payments to be paid to each Council to cover some of the cost of collecting and processing.

Deposit Return Scheme (on bottles and cans) The latest news on this will be only on plastic drink bottles over 49mm to 3Lte and drink cans which will have a deposit amount of probably 20p. Glass bottles will now not be included. To claim your deposit back you will be required to return it to your retail outlet who will refund it over the counter or a return vending machine. This in theory will remove the majority of plastic and cans from curb-side collections, and the retail companies will be required to handle the returned bottles and cans and send them for processing for recycling.

Consistency in Collections (now called “Simpler Recycling”) In East Devon we are processing all the materials required by the act, but it is expected that light plastic rapping will be included later. The only outstanding issue that early discussions included was a free Garden Waste bin for every household. At present East Devon provide the service at £50 per year for a 2 weekly collection that makes a small provide which goes towards funding the general recycling costs for the district.

These new initiatives are still in development by DEFRA with implementation originally planned for next year, but now moved to Oct 2025 (but this is now looking very unlikely!!)

It had been expected that the Prime Minister would have provided clarity on these vitally important changes, but no! the only news was we will not be required to have 7 bins!!

East Devon’s  Recycling and Waste operations are considered one of the best in the country, but the unending uncertainty is making it very difficult to forward plan the strategy and council finances. An extension to the current business partnership with Suez is now being finalised, but a new contract must be agreed and actioned by the summer of 2026 (less than 3 years away!) In that time the changes that the Government require needs to be embedded and in operation to provide an understanding of the physical and monetary changes, plus the added budgetary  plans to decarbonise the 60 vehicles with the probable electrification of the whole fleet.