Changes have been planned to boost Nottingham’s recycling rates after figures revealed the council to be one of the “lowest performing” in the country.
Some of the changes include a shake-up in how bins are collected, an increase in staffing, and the collection of materials that would have otherwise ended up in general waste bins.
Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) revealed Nottingham was ranked among the lowest performing councils for recycling, positioned 329th out of 343 councils in 2022/23.
The percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling, or composting, sat at just 25 per cent, according to the figures.
Nationally, rates have stagnated at around 40 per cent – below the Government’s target of 65 per cent by 2035.
During a people, communities and environment scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday (November 6) councillors discussed plans to improve recycling rates.
Cllr David Mellen (Lab) said he was concerned with larger firms using large amounts of packaging for online deliveries, as well as difficulties in recycling in high-risk blocks.
He said: “So many people are getting parcels delivered to their house, and the cardboard might be easy to recycle – but in the cardboard there is usually a load of plastic and polystyrene.
“I want to talk about high-rise recycling. We have got about four blocks in my ward and we used to have a bag that they used to throw into a chute. I think there is a lot we can look to recycle there.”
Alvin Henry, head of waste and cleansing at the council, said Amazon allows purchasers to select less packaging to assist with waste, while the separate bags for recycling in high-rise blocks were scrapped because they were “so inefficient”.
He said Nottingham would be receiving a Government grant of £5 million to help expand recycling, while enabling the council to meet upcoming collection and packaging reforms.
The funding comes from the Government’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging initiative, under which producers must pay a fee for the packaging they supply or import into the UK market.
The packaging typically ends up in household waste, leaving local councils with the financial and logistical burden of disposing of it.
Specific plans to improve recycling include the purchasing of three new recycling collection vehicles, recruiting more frontline staff, including nine loaders and four drivers, as well as targeted communications.
Under the Government’s simpler recycling plans, a number of changes will be coming into force over the next few years.
All businesses and non-domestic premises in England with more than 10 members of staff must now separate core recyclable waste and food waste.
More than 300 businesses in the city have also now signed up for food waste collections.
In March 2026 the collection of foil, cartons and food from households becomes mandatory. The council is currently out for procurement for a firm that can offer this service.
Plastic film – such as bags and flexible film packaging – must then be collected from households and businesses from March 2027.
However, the council has confirmed that its food waste collection service will not be fully operational for all households until 2030, with a phased rollout beginning from March 2028. This is due to existing contracts causing delays.
The food waste collection service for households was trialled for around 3,500 homes in the Berridge ward in 2023.
Mr Henry said, positively, the council’s focus on reducing the contaminated recycling rate from 27.6 per cent to around 19 per cent has resulted in savings of over £300,000.
He said while this work will continue, future work will target the collected material and increase low recycling rates.
“The team has worked tirelessly,” he added. “We were at 27 per cent contamination for many, many years, and now we are at 19 per cent. If we got that down to 16 per cent as a core city that would be amazing.”
• Nottingham prepares for major overhaul of recycling and waste services
