A target to recycle half of all household waste by the year 2020 is still not being hit by Solihull Council, it has been revealed.

Figures recently presented to councillors showed that overall recycling in Solihull dipped slightly to 42.4 per cent in 2016/17 (down from 42.8 per cent in the previous financial year.)

This is adrift of the 50 per cent target that the local authority had hoped to achieve by the turn of the decade.

A bin lorry on the Solihull/Birmingham border
A bin lorry on the Solihull/Birmingham border

An update provided to a decision making session last month revealed that Solihull - in common with some other councils - had seen its recycling rate plateau in recent years, following a period of dramatic growth.

Officers have advised that this is because the borough council had already taken advantage of all the "quick wins" that helped to improve the rate, with further changes to the service or new policies to encourage recycling needed to push the figure higher.

Cllr Tim Hodgson (Green, Shirley West) told the meeting that research revealed authorities which had the best recycling rates operated a system where general waste was collected every other week and he suggested that some householders are now more open to the idea of fortnightly collections.

Cllr Hodgson noted that some councils - such as Stratford-on-Avon District - had managed to reach a recycling rate of more than 60 per cent. This had been the upper-end of Solihull's aspirations when it set out its waste strategy back in 2010.

"I appreciate our demographics are different, but it's certainly possible to achieve that," he said.

"What you find is that any authority that achieves a 60 per cent plus rate is doing fortnightly bin collections and is doing recycling as a priority and food waste is usually in the mix.

"It is fair to say that, yes, there are concerns around doing that, but the feedback I've been getting more recently is people saying 'well we're filling the brown bin, but we're not filling the black bin'."

Participation in the recycling service remains high, at just under 90 per cent, although cases of contamination were found to have risen last year.

Cllr Ade Adeyemo (Lib Dem, Lyndon) had sought assurances that efforts would continue to advise those residents, who are not on the internet, of the recycling policy; the council's quarterly magazine - Your Solihull - is to become an online-only publication following the most recent edition.

The cabinet member for the environment and housing, Cllr Alison Rolf, said that the local authority would continue its efforts to get the message to residents.

"If we're going to get to 50 per cent [recycling] we've got to engage with everybody and make sure that everybody is looking at what they put into their bin and thinking about what they can and can't recycle as much as we possibly can, so we can hit those targets."