Why does industry not use more recycled material. New material is cheap and reuse not financially attractive, recycled material difficult to obtain, not of the right quality are amongst the reasons. To encourage industry a ready source of usable material needs to be generated. Current recycling schemes are delivering a certain amount but to achieve a quantum shift a concerted policy focus on recovering materials from household waste is required. With a large number of high street premises becoming vacant it provides an opportunity for local authorities to increase supply of quality materials for recycling. Some fundamental enabling legislation is required:
Local authorities provided the powers to commandeer vacant premises for the purpose in lieu of rate payments;
These be used to collect and sort clean plastic, metal, and paper waste from the local communities
Tax on ‘new’ plastic, metal and paper products to be phased-in; particular focus on single use plastics
Consumers to be incentivised to recycle: deposits on packing to be levied at point of sale that can be recovered at the new recycling centres
Those employed to work in the collection centres are prioritised from those made unemployed in the retail sector
Systems for the separation and processing materials to meet industry requirements to be introduced, i.e. separation of different grades of plastic and processing into form that can be used by producers.
Protection for UK manufacturers from imports.
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