Recycling falls following booking system introduction

South Woodham Ferrers’ waste recycling system is in decline despite promises to increase it according to the latest figures from a Freedom of Information request submitted by the South Woodham Ferrers Residents Party.

New figures obtained by the local party show people took 400 fewer tonnes of waste to South Woodham's public recycling centre last year compared with the year before, with the amount of that waste actually recycled falling by 2%.

It is against a backdrop of falling recycling in the county over the past 10 years. Back in 2014 nearly three-quarters of all waste taken to the county’s recycling centres was recycled- now it is just 57% - but at South Woodham, it is even less at 51%.

It follows the introduction of a controversial booking system in March 2023, following a one-year trial at busier recycling centres. The South Woodham Ferrers Residents Party argued a booking system was unnecessary and would discourage use of recycling centres like South Woodham which rarely experiences queuing.

It comes as Essex County Council promised to achieve a 70% recycling rate in its waste strategy, by 2030.

Scott Wilson, Leader of the South Woodham Ferrers Residents Party, said: "This decline in the recycling rate at our household waste and recycling centre, at double the county average, is proof that the pernicious and ill-managed booking system has put up a further barrier to our residents recycling.

"The public need to be rewarded, not punished for recycling with better, more accessible facilities and more information on the contribution they are making to the environment.

"Essex County Council says it wants us to be a 'zero waste' county by 2055, have zero waste to landfill by 2030 and reduce waste by 10% by 2035 - at the moment these ambitions seem nothing more than wishful thinking and we call on the Council to act before this decline becomes any more embedded."

More information can be found in South Woodham Ferrers Resident Party Freedom of Information request here.

Further breakdowns of the figures and analysis carried out by the SWFRP can be found here and here