Councillors have reacted to a report that details Middlesbrough’s “poor” recycling rates and discussed how the current situation can be improved.
The final report of the environment scrutiny panel was delivered to Middlesbrough’s Overview and Scrutiny Board on 23 October, where Labour Councillor David Branson outlined his key takeaways from the report. He said the purpose of the report was to look at “how we can increase recycling rates to meet national targets, whilst minimising the costs of waste disposal in Middlesbrough”.
Not doing a very good job
He told the Overview and Scrutiny Board that Middlesbrough “does not do a very good job” when it comes to recycling, adding that the town has one of the highest levels of residual waste collection per person.
The report details that national recycling targets were 50% in 2020 and are set for 65% in 2035. According to WasteDataFlow, an average of 29.3% of Middlesbrough’s household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting between the years 2018 and 2023. The regional average was 32.3%.
He explained that the lower recycling rates could be partly put down to the large amount of terraced housing within the council boundaries, asserting that it is more difficult to successfully recycle when using communal bins. In addition, the lack of gardens in the town will bring down recycling rates as there is less green waste being collected than other authorities.
Contaminated recycling
Cllr Branson added that “we do have problems with high levels of contaminated recycling.” This contaminated recycling becomes residual waste and “the cost of residual waste has increased year on year and this is set to almost double in 2026. Recyclable waste is much cheaper for us.”
On fly tipping, it was reported that in Middlesbrough, there are “a lower level of fly tipping incidents compared to some of the other local authorities nearby but it’s still high nationally.”
As for potential solutions going forward, Cllr Branson said that “we need to promote recycling in Middlesbrough”, for example, greater education was deemed necessary as people frequently put their recycling in the wrong bin.
Additionally, he asserted that “we need to make sure that when we are building new houses, that we provide sufficient facilities for effective recycling… remember that people are going to need more space for recycling bins than in the past.”
Liberal Democrat Councillor Morgan McClintock asked questions about public waste bins as well as the “scourge” of dog waste. He said in his ward of Nunthorpe some people put the dog waste into bags but then “sometimes they hurl them into people’s gardens.”
He asked Cllr Branson if he “deliberately wanted to contain your report to private waste” as he thought “it is related to what we do about public waste. Cllr Branson confirmed: “I think we were limited in what we were looking at”.
On one of the core recommendations of better education, Cllr McClintock said “I suspect a lot of people think, ‘I’ve got to do the right thing and recycle where possible, so if there’s any doubt they’ll put it in the recycle bin.” He said that if people do this and then contaminate the recycling it causes a “worse problem than if they put it in the black bin in the first place. So I think the message needs to be clear: go to the black bin if you’re not sure.”
Middlesbrough Independent Councillor Association (MICA) Councillor Ian Morrish said “Some of the problems with the contamination of waste could be down to the fact that most of what you buy these days has a recycle symbol on it.”
Information leaflets
Cllr Branson spoke of information leaflets being delivered with council tax bills to make it as clear as possible for residents what items should go in which bin. He added “I take Cllr McClintock’s point that if you’re really not sure, then maybe you should be putting [waste] in the black bin. But it is a problem for us, because if it says recycle on [an item], then the tendency will be for people to recycle. We will do the best we can there. ”
Cllr Morrish responded, saying “I think it’s probably down to the government to make sure that every council throughout the land has a standardised system” to which Cllr Branson said “I think we will probably move towards that.”
