The Daily Mail has drawn support for its ‘great recycling con trick' report from Chris Dow, CEO of Closed Loop.
The newspaper claimed that millions of tons of household rubbish painstakingly sorted by families for recycling are being dumped abroad in foreign landfill sites, an assertion that Defra dismissed as ‘misleading'.
But Dow said: “The Daily Mail is absolutely right to highlight the issue of export. The Environment Agency is working hard to stem the tide of illegal exports, however funding for the Environmental Agency has not kept pace with the growth in exports.
“As a nation, we now have the facilities to recycle not only plastic, but nearly every type of unwanted consumer goods, right here in the UK. By doing this we are creating green jobs and keeping valuable resources at home.”
Dow said that red tape and regulations are stunting ‘green' growth and cited the Packaging Recovery Note system as an example of enshrined bad practice.
“By making some simple changes and continuing to remind people about the true benefits of recycling – of which there are many – we can successfully increase recycling rates even further, grow the UK recycling industry, create many thousands of green jobs which will boost the wider economy and of course cut carbon levels in the process, with the obvious benefits to the environment,” Dow added.