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How Brexit Is Affecting The UK’s Recycling Industry

The United Kingdom produces far more waste than it can recycle or reuse. Our domestic manufacturing sectors and recycling industry are simply too small to deal with the quantities of waste materials generated here. Historically, we have dealt with this by exporting our waste all around the world, particularly into Europe.

However, since the actioning of Brexit, the United Kingdom’s recycling industry has faced heavy disruption. Our diminished ability to our export waste to the EU member states we have been sending it to for years has caused a number of problems. For example, we are seeing a spike in the amount of waste being sent to landfill and an increase in the amount of waste being illegally dumped.

Brexit has also caused disruption in border control, which has caused increased delays at ports. The domino effect here is that the increased delays at ports means there are fewer trucks available, and that there are fewer drivers willing to do these cross-border journeys. This is causing a surge in haulage rates, disincentivising waste generators from sending their waste to recyclers overseas.

The port delays and shortage of hauliers alongside the extra paperwork and other red tape now involved in exporting waste means that for UK waste managers and producers, having waste handled sustainably now involves increased hassle, increased costs and decreasing revenue.

This will not only drive more waste into landfill, but it opens up gaping holes for the criminal recycling industry to fill. With the effects of Brexit, we will see the illegal movement of materials, the shirking of proper procedure and the non-adherence to environmental regulation.

Recycling Industry

Without the capacity to export waste, many issues are also arising within the UK’s domestic recycling industry. As the number of recovery facilities in the UK is small and the amount of waste staying in the country is growing, the facilities are now able to be far more selective over the materials they take. The recovery facilities are able to take the highest grades of waste only, and turn down the lower, less valuable grades that we were able to move abroad prior to Brexit. This means those lower grades are building up on sites around the country with nowhere to move them to.

There are some benefitting from the situation we find ourselves in; thanks to Brexit, UK hauliers are experiencing a massive increase in demand for UK-to-UK routes. Hauliers who deal with UK-to-EU routes, however, have not been so fortunate, and have in fact reported a significant loss of business.

Times have changed, rapidly and drastically, and the UK has a lot of catching up to do. It just so happens that helping the UK recycling industry to keep on top of its waste management needs is exactly what Let’s Recycle It Ltd is here to do. Our team has decades of experience in the recycling industry, and our network of end users, both domestically and around the world, is vast and ever-growing. We have both the means and the expertise to ensure that waste is handled in the most ethical and responsible way possible.

We know that our track record speaks for itself, and with our fully traceable services we can guarantee the most environmentally friendly treatment of your waste every time.

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