Recycling is organized at a local level, meaning household collections and public recycling points are managed by the local authority – and paid for through your local council tax in the UK. However, rather confusingly for expats and locals alike, what and when you recycle depends entirely on where you live. If you live in an apartment building, whether council- or privately-owned, you’ll have a communal recycling point somewhere outside your building where you can leave your recycling. Generally speaking, the vast majority of homes in the UK will have their recycling collected by their local authority on their doorstep. For more information on how you can help, read our 10 simple steps to sustainable living in the UK. It’s hoped that these measures, alongside campaigns to reduce plastic use in everyday life, such as supermarket shopping, will help address the UK’s issue with plastic use. This includes 2015’s ban on supermarket plastic bags – which saw plastic bag usage drop by 90% – and a ban on plastic straws and servers, due to come into effect in 2020. In a bid to help cut plastic waste, the UK government has introduced several measures to reduce plastic use at a household level, particularly single-use plastics. However, the issue of exporting recyclable waste abroad is highly controversial, with the industry having links to organized crime and illegal burning. Much of this ended up in Malaysia, Türkiye, and Poland, following the Chinese government’s earlier decision to ban imported plastic scrap that was less than 99.5% pure. A BBC investigation found that the UK exported over 600,000 tonnes of recovered plastic packaging in 2018 alone. When it comes to plastic, the figures are a little different.
Set up your home with our guide to gas, electricity, and water in the UK However, despite these encouraging numbers, the UK still exported 9.5 million tonnes of metal and 4.5 million tonnes of plastic abroad for recycling in 2018 alone. These materials are also the most recycled, with 79% of paper and cardboard, 71.3% of metal, and 67.6% of glass recycled in 2017, respectively. Generally speaking, much of your household waste will be recycled in the UK, including paper, metal, and glass. Once you’ve thrown your recycling into the right receptacle, what happens to it? Well, that depends on the material. Whether it meets this target remains to be seen, but as an expat living in the UK, there are plenty of ways you can help.
The UK’s current target for waste management is to recycle 50% of all household waste by 2020. Countries like Germany, South Korea, and Austria each recycle between 60% and 70% of household waste. However, despite these general improvements, the UK continues to lag behind the world-leaders in recycling.
For example, Wales recycled 54.1% of household waste in 2018. A closer look at the data shows there are substantial differences across the country, though, as some parts of the UK recycle more than others. According to government statistics for 2018, the UK as a whole recycled 45% of all household waste, down slightly from 45.7% in 2017. Like many other European countries, the United Kingdom has made significant improvements to its recycling system in the last couple of decades. Find out more The recycling system in the UK
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