It’s not too often that you may consider your government over-ambitious. Perhaps even less often you expect they shall live up to your expectations. It is exemplary then, that the Welsh Assembly can lay claim to being both ambitious in its objectives and commendable in exceeding expectations.
Ten years ago, in 2002, waste within Wales was a contentious issue. The Welsh Assembly openly admitted that waste was a problem [1]. In 2000-2001, recycling of municipal waste stood at just 6.4%, by 2002 over 4 millions tonnes of materials were sent to landfill [2]. The newly-formed “Waste in Wales” national strategy sought to remedy the situation and determined that, by just 2009/2010, recycling should increase six-fold to 40% [1]; an extraordinarily bold ambition. Furthermore, the 2002 national strategy also aspired to:
- Establish 3-4 exemplar local authorities to develop good practice models
- Set-up the first permit system to restrict the bio-degradable municipal waste going to landfill, from local authorities
- Design and disperse effective environmental education materials for all the community
Here, this article shall briefly present the gradual annual progress made by a nation towards its targets.
In 2000-2001, Wales recycled just 6.4% of household waste [2]. The newly formed “Wise About Waste” plan, in 2002, granted newfound focus and attention to both the problems and opportunities of adequate waste management. This was the starting block of a change. The plan explores – in great detail – an array of waste minimisation and treatment targets, objectives and strategies.
In the immediate shadow of the Wise About Waste plan, Wales acted with speed and determination. In 2002-2003 – just a year after the introduction of the new plan – recycling increased from 154,000 tonnes to 212,000 tonnes whilst land-filled waste dropped from 1,547,000 tonnes to 1,497,000 tonnes [3].
Whilst an early commendable success, the overall amount of municipal waste created crawled upwards to 1,820,000 tonnes in 2003-2004 [3]. Indeed the Assembly found itself battling a continuous increase in waste generation – reaching a height of 1,928,000 tonnes in 2004-2005 despite recycling also hitting a new high of 280,000 tonnes in 2004-2005 [3]. It was becoming apparent that services and strategies were not sufficient on their own, instead the very attitudes and behaviours of Welsh citizens had to change; a new environmental paradigm needed to be communicated and embedded throughout welsh society. Awareness materials, campaign messages and the implanting of both sustainable development and interdisciplinary cross-bordering thinking amongst policies embedded the idea and vision of a cleaner, greener Wales throughout Government and Society.
In 2005/2006, waste accumulation took a significant drop, down to 1,898,000 tonnes of municipal waste [3]. With a new recycling high of 347,000 tonnes – 21.5% compared to 6.4 just five years earlier. This stage, this year, was a significant signal to Wales. As the “halfway” point toward the 2010 40% target, it was clear that indeed, successes were evident, but more needed doing; more opportunity needed to be exploited, more energy required to enhance current participation rates and more efforts to commit to objectives.
In a bid to expose opportunities and threats, the government undertook a national survey to ascertain behaviours and attitudes. The “Living in Wales” survey of 2007 disclosed that 96% of respondents reported having participated in at least one environmental activity (A narrow increase from 95% in 2005) [4]. The range of activities considered “environmental” are broad and include common everyday issues such as using public transport to recycling waste, despite this, a positive response rate of 96% would perhaps have made the Assembly both ecstatic at the achievement, but perhaps distressed in wondering what more could now be done to ensure the achievement of the looming 2010 target.
Closer inspection of the results provides clear answers to the Assembly’s concerns; Improvements could, perhaps, still be made. It was found that those living in (i) older households (ii) households with higher incomes (iii) detached/semi detached homes, were found to participate noticeably more than those in younger households, those with lower incomes and those living within flatted accommodation. Two of those points were worth consideration. Older households significantly outperformed younger households in stating that they participated in all of the environmental activities offered within the 2007 survey. Secondly, those in flatted accommodation recycled significantly less in comparison to those within detached, semi-detached and terraced homes. These two aspects alone, allow for significantly large opportunities to reach out to householders and further the recycling agenda.
Renewed and re-energised efforts provided rich rewards. In 2009-2010, Wales topped the 40% recycling target in achieving a 40.5% success rate [3]. Such an extraordinary achievement illustrated the efforts and commitments to the residents of Wales towards a cleaner and greener nation, illustrating a collective ambition and drive toward the common goal. Whilst a laudable achievement, it must be pointed out that landfill at this stage still remained the main method of waste management, however, for the first time, landfill waste volumes dropped below 1,000,000 tonnes threshold to 931,000 tonnes [3].
Having merited such successes and credibility, the Welsh Assembly set new targets for recycling; to commit to 70% of municipal waste being recycled by 2025 – and matching an equal target to their Scottish counterparts in Holyrood. In early 2011, a snapshot shows us recycling in Wales has risen again, up to 43%. Whilst municipal waste increased from 367,000 tonnes to 378,000 tonnes between the January – March period of 2010 to January – March 2011 [5], the Assembly states this to be an anomaly caused by weather-induced disruption to collection services. In addition, the Assembly released new data showing the estimated waste accumulated by each resident of Wales, showing an estimated drop from 95kg each in Jan-March 2007 to 65kg in January – March 2011; a drop of almost a third per individual! [5]
As always though, there is space for improvement to further push Wales onto the road of reaching their new targets. In the regional dissection of data, Bridgend increased recycling between 2010 and 2011 by 11%, reaching 34% and Ceredigion outperformed all others with 41% of waste recycled [5]. In contrast however – and offering scope for potential – Flintshire recycling rates dropped 8% in the 2010-2011 year to 24% whilst Gwynedd remains the community with the greatest challenge, currently recycling 23% of waste in 2011, followed closely by Flintshire and Cardiff on 24% [5].
This brief snapshot at recycling in Wales shows a country grasping its full potential and making drastic improvements to its recycling efforts. Having exceeded previous targets, Wales is a country with determination and commitment. Indeed – and perhaps in its favour – there are communities and aspects which offer scope for improvement. Hopefully these communities are not facing cumbersome problems and can offer Wales, overall, a chance to further enhance their recycling achievements.
[1] http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/epq/waste_recycling /publication/wiseaboutwaste/
[2] http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/environment2010/0121/?lang=en
[3] http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/environment2010/101116/?lang=en
[4] http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/social2008/hdw20081212/?lang=en
[5] http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/environment2011/110628/?lang=en
Of interest:
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/epq/waste_recycling/ publication/wiseaboutwaste
