Market and State Heterogeneity: Recycling Systems in England

Abstract

In contrast to Sweden, England has been described as ‘the dirty man of Europe’. However, the country’s household recycling rate has been steadily increasing in the last decade as a result of large-scale investment in infrastructure for kerbside recycling systems that have placed expectations upon consumers, like Ruth in Chapter 1, to sort their household waste. As the opening quotation highlights, the escalating Landfill Tax and growing value of raw materials have played a significant role in driving local authorities and private companies to increase recycling rates. But these factors have only been influential because of the very different system of provision of waste management in England than Sweden — private waste management companies (WMCs) play a key role in the collection, processing and treatment of household waste, and because producer responsibility is not institutionalised in the same way as in Sweden, there is a profit to be made from selling recyclable materials on the market. The dominant alternative to recycling is landfilling, and this is an expensive solution for local authorities, thus making the economic value of recycling more visible in England than in Sweden.

I think that the biggest step change you’ve seen in the last 10 years is the value of raw materials and energy going through the roof, and the Landfill Tax going up to £80 a tonne.

(Interview with UK waste expert, August 2011)