Defra's minister for waste and climate change, Joan Ruddock, recently quoted figures relating to waste materials which households have sent to be recycled in the UK. Apparently, about 9% of the 1.3 million tonnes of municipal waste material does not actually get recycled. During 2006-07 a total of 89,000 tonnes collected from households for recycling were rejected by materials recycling facilities, and another 32,000 tonnes were rejected by recycling processors. Of that 89,000 tonnes rejected, 55,000 tonnes were sent to landfill and almost 34,000 tonnes were sent for incineration with energy recovery.
These figures could continue to contribute to opposition to co-mingled collections, as many UK reprocessors feel that this method of collection is hampering their processes. Mrs Ruddock said that the government is looking at a range of ideas to deal with the problem, and that "any solutions have to make both environmental and economic sense if they are to be successful".
| 
