Being bottom of the European league on recycling is an indictment of the policies of this government and its predecessor. That speaks volumes about lack of political will. National and local politicians have been taking the easy way out and putting nearly all the rubbish down the nearest hole in the ground. Those European countries and British councils without anywhere to put their rubbish were the first to begin recycling material. Those with available holes in the ground dumped it.
Necessity is the mother of invention - and of sensible recycling schemes, it seems.
A second failure has been the lack of market for recycled products. When a new paper-mill opened in the 1990s in Aylesford in Kent to make newsprint out of recycled material, prices shot up. Soon the mill was overwhelmed with paper and prices slumped. Much of the newspaper collected for recycling was dumped in landfill sites. Some is exported to Sweden in otherwise empty newsprint-delivery ships returning to base.