CIWM chief executive Steve Lee commented: It’s been a difficult task kicking a bad landfill habit in the UK. With the concerted efforts of Government, local authorities and a variety of other organisations and indeed the public themselves we have raised recycling levels to 23% of municipal waste in the UK – still some way behind a number of our European counterparts. It would be a disaster if we started to regress because of negative public perceptions.’

‘The problems revealed by the Real Story programme are part and parcel of a developing market which is suddenly global and not local and in which valuable materials are being traded from country to country. There is actually nothing wrong with sending recyclables to other countries but it has to be done legally so that the importing country is not disadvantaged.’

CIWM has been working with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the Environment Agency and other organisations throughout 2005 with a view to developing standards that are simple, clear, rigorous but fair, and accepted globally.

Steve Lee concluded: ‘It’s vital that we continue to put all our efforts into recycling, not only to meet European legislative targets but also to achieve the future sustainable waste management needs of the UK.’