Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt has accused councils of being 'misled' and losing out on millions of pounds through a 'rip-off' aluminium recycling system. She claims that some councils are sending scrap aluminium abroad, including to China, while UK recycling facilities could process it domestically.
Munt, who represents Wells in Somerset, has collected scrap aluminium for 25 years and donates proceeds to local charities. She sent Freedom of Information requests to all councils and found that some neighbouring authorities with similar policies had vastly different incomes from recycling—one making over £1 million a year, the other nothing.
She visited the Novelis recycling plant in Warrington, Cheshire, which recycles 200,000 tonnes of aluminium annually. Plant manager Alan Sweeney said the facility will be able to recycle all UK aluminium cans once a £75 million expansion, partly government-funded, is completed next year.
Munt said: 'For far too long profit-driven scrap merchants have sold our aluminium abroad without any consideration for the national interest.' She called for a complete overhaul of the system and a government clampdown on exports.
