Council bosses have urged the Government to ensure local authorities receive the full costs for delivering waste and recycling services under new packaging reforms.
It comes as new analysis commissioned by the Local Government Association, County Councils Network (CCN), and District Councils’ Network found that households binned 5.6 million tonnes of packaging waste last year.
The research found that 3.2 million tonnes of this was put into recycling bins, 2.3 million tonnes in residual bins, and 70,000 tonnes was mistakenly put in food waste.
From 2026, under the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, industry will be required to pay for the processing of packaging waste.
But the local government organisations warned that recyclable waste that goes in the wrong bins costs more to treat, and said these extra costs are unlikely to be met by payments from the scheme.
They also urged the Government to ensure that reforms focus on reducing unnecessary waste created in the first place and making it easier to recycle packaging, including through clearer labelling.
CCN infrastructure and planning spokesperson Richard Clewer said: ‘As this research has shown, a significant amount of recyclable waste still ends up in the wrong bin despite the best efforts of local authorities.
‘The Government must ensure that recyclable waste that is placed into incorrect bins is taken into consideration when calculating the amount that councils will get paid through the EPR scheme.
‘At a time when they are under immense financial pressures, councils should not be penalised, and producers of packaging must do more to ensure that packing ends up in the correct bin.’
