Household recycling targets being missed in Arun

Between April 1 and June 30 Arun District Council sent just over 46 per cent of household waste for re-use, recycling, and composting.

This falls short of the council’s 50 per cent target and will continue to do so if bin collections remain unchanged, according to officers.

Garden waste is also included in the total, which means the figure for this period is usually higher as it is the growing season.

The government wanted local authorities to send 50 per cent of waste to recycling by 2020, rising to 65 per cent in 2035.

The council has met its residual waste target.

Between April and June this stood at just over 112kg per household and the annual target is 450kg per year.

Councillors heard the latest figures during Thursday’s (September 22) Environment Committee meeting.

Chair David Edwards (Con, Felpham East) said he felt the committee was being ‘blamed’ for not hitting recycling targets.

“The amount of recycling that we get done, I know that has increased,” he said.

“It’s getting better definitely and edging nearer the 50 per cent.

“We are being blamed as a committee for not being able to achieve this which I thought was quite astonishing actually.

“How is it our fault that that we can’t ever seem to hit 50 per cent on our recycling?”

Officers explained that this was because the committee rejected proposals to introduce fortnightly bin collections and weekly food waste collections from 2023.

It is thought that adopting these collections could boost recycling rates.

Isabel Thurston (Green, Barnham), who was disappointed at the decision not to introduce food waste collections, said: “Although I was vilified for voting [for alternate weekly collections] it is the way to get the recycling rates up, so it seems a bit silly for people sitting in this committee to now start complaining.

“Take responsibility for the way you vote.”

A number of reasons were given by the council for not changing collections including high costs and fears that less frequent residual collections could prove hazardous for residents.