Defra to revise plans for recycling consistency

New legislation to introduce three bins – coloured red, amber and green – to simplify the recycling process for the public is rumoured to be at the heart of the Government’s proposed consistency reforms for recycling collections in England.

Following Defra’s consultation, there appears to have been a last-minute rethink by Defra’s Secretary of State Therese Coffey on how best to reduce confusion about the materials that can be collected at kerbside in England. Initial plans to minimise the changes to the status quo have been replaced with a radical initiative to require all Unitary and Collection Authorities to introduce the three-bins approach by 1 April 2027.

According to the Defra spokesperson, the traffic-light system should be easy to follow, requiring households to put all recyclables including food and garden waste in the green bin, residual waste in the red bin and items the public is not sure about in the amber bin.

To implement the new collection methodology, the bins will be designed to enhance capacity, odour control, hygiene and – most of all – aesthetics. They will be shaped with a smaller base and larger lid area in the shape of single-use beverage containers, to resonate with the shifting public attitude against single-use throw-away culture. Kwonsu acknowledged that due to the new designs, the bins have already been dubbed ‘Coffey Cups’ by Defra officials.

The bins will be shaped with a smaller base and larger lid area to look like single-use beverage containers, resonating with the shifting public attitude against single-use throw-away culture.

The innovation and approach has been developed by the Department in conjunction with London-based marketing agency, Mind the Gap. In its recent behaviour change study, ‘Recycling: How to make the public less stupid’, the agency identified key blockers to engaging with recycling services, notably including points such as ‘recycling bins are ugly’ and ‘where do I dispose of my broken China’.

To unearth these insights, the agency used CCTV and artificial intelligence to track the movements of the residents, calculating exactly how many times per week recycling was taken out and how often they hesitated when selecting the correct recycling bins.

Commenting on the results of the study April La Feuille, Director of Unusual Campaigns at Mind the Gap, commented: “We really should have surveyed more people, but the results speak for themselves. No one has time to think about half this stuff and so we’ve decided to lean into this thought pattern.”

The stand-out feature of the new proposals is the Amber bin. According to La Feuille, this innovation is a result of research that found that if a householder spends more than 3.75 seconds thinking about whether the item is recyclable or not, there is a high likelihood that the uncertainty will result in the item being placed in the wrong container, causing contamination.

She added: “Toothpaste, aerosol deodorant cans, pizza boxes, needles, cling film are the type of thing we’re expecting to see in the Amber bin. It could be anything, CDs, DVDs, even hoodies abandoned post-breakup.”

Spokesperson Kwonsu added that the Government intends for material from amber bins to be sent to a newly built regional network of ‘miscellaneous recycling and reuse facilities’ (MRRFs) which will be constructed in freeports around the country.

These MRRFs will ‘upcycle’ the waste into arts and crafts projects and containers for holding items such as flowers and paintbrushes, with the remaining 95 per cent of the waste shipped to Rwanda, after which no one will have to think about it.

He added: “Ministers are excited to introduce the new ‘Coffey cup’ traffic light recycling system. The green-amber-red-hot concept will enhance the process of recycling for the public and bring beautiful new recycling bins to our streets.

“Rwanda has been a really fantastic partner in this project and, as we have asked no questions about their plans for onward processing, we have complete peace of mind.”