Liberal Democrats are calling on Haringey Council to conduct and publish a full and proper assessment of the destination and environmental impacts of household items collected for recycling in the borough, following growing national concerns that such waste is being illegally exported.

The call, by Lib Dem councillor and Environment Spokesperson Bob Hare, follows the issue of a letter from the Department of the Environment (DEFRA) to all local waste authorities earlier this month. The letter expresses serious concerns about the issue and instructs waste authorities to check that no waste from their area is being exported illegally to countries outside Europe.

Lib Dems have received expressions of concern from residents in recent weeks about the Council’s new recycling service, where paper, card, glass and plastics are collected together and then mixed and crushed in new collection wagons. Lib Dems fear this may be a step back from previous collection regimes or collection at recycling centres, where waste is typically sorted out into separate streams.

Cllr Hare says that clear and detailed answers areneeded on what happens to this mixed crushed waste and what proportion of it cannot be separated and recycled.

Specifically, Cllr Hare fears that glass collected under the new system cannot be turned back into bottles and is typically used as road aggregate. Clothes, full of glass particles, cannot be sent to charity shops, where they would have had a much higher value. Bob Hare is concerned that paper and card collected under the mixing process in Haringey is already being exported to China. This was first denied and then appeared to be accepted by the Labour Lead Member for the Environment when the issue was raised at last week’s Muswell Hill neighbourhood assembly meeting.Cllr Ray Dodds also admitted that residents wishing to see their clothes reused would be better taking them to places such as Oxfam shops rather than using the new system.

Cllr Bob Hare comments:

“This DEFRA letter is very worrying, given the seriousness of the concerns it expresses. It is vitally important that Haringey conducts a full audit of how this new stream of mixed recyclables is handled. Haringey is very much in the front line on this, as it has rushed headlong into this system in order to boost its very poor recycling figures.”

Cllr Hare has admitted that until the fate of these recyclables become clearer, he is continuing to take his own recyclables to more traditional centres where glass, paper and cans are separated.

Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson, Cllr Lynne Featherstone, who has been corresponding with many local residents on the issue, adds:

“We need to know precisely what happens to these waste streams, how much of this waste can’t be separated at all, and what happens to it. It would be extremely disturbing, if, in the rush to meet targets, any local councils were engaging in ineffective recycling, or indeed, even breaking the law.”