CAMPAIGNERS are demanding action to ramp up the green agenda as reuse, recycling and composting rates slumped by nearly 5 per cent in Southend.

Government figures show the amount of waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting has fallen over the last five years.

It’s now at 46.8 per cent but the rate was 51.4 per cent.

The statistics come after Channel Four show Dirty Truth About Your Rubbish called out the council for sending too much recycling to incinerators.

Figures given to the show by the council suggested 45 per cent of rubbish was sent to be incinerated but now council bosses stressed this was an error. In fact, it is only nine per cent.

Despite the error, South East Essex Friends of the Earth has called on the council to boost its green credentials, specifically by pushing for the Government to remove single-use plastic from the supply chain.

Jon Fuller, 63, group co-ordinator, said: “Whether it’s 45 or nine per cent it’s still far too much, burning plastic is worse than coal.

“We should not be adding to the carbon in the environment and will cause millions of deaths by doing so.

“Southend Council need to be pushing central Government to cut out single use plastic quicker and all parties should be doing this.

“It doesn’t matter what political party our children chose to follow they will still suffer the horror if the environment collapses and they will never forgive us.”

He’s also demanded the council bosses are tougher with staff at waste collection for Veolia and push them to step up ecycling rates.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs data shows that Southend Council collected 417.6 kg of household waste per person from homes in the area in 2019-20 – 2.6 kg more than five years earlier.

Labour and Tory party leaders agree more education is key to boosting recycling.

Ian Gilbert, Labour leader of Southend Council, suggested online messaging and leaflets could help with educating residents about the issue.

Mr Gilbert added: “We want to stress we only send items to the incinerator that cannot be recycled and are put in the wrong sack.

“Obviously we want to increase rates and make sure people are putting items in the correct sacks.

“We do need more education around what can be recycled.”

Mr Gilbert said the bigger challenge is reducing the amount of packaging used and unnecessary waste. He said the council is working with firms on the issue.

He added: “We also need to encourage people to use and buy items with more environmentally friendly packaging.

“We are working with businesses and suppliers on this.

“I think online advertising and messaging is useful and it may also work to hand out information on leaflets with our recycling bags about what is put in them.”

Tony Cox, leader of the Southend Conservatives, said: “I think part of the problem is people do not know what can be recycled or put into each sack or collection method.

“We also need to see more, and tougher, laws from Government about what’s expected from councils. We also have different recycling methods for different types of housing, such as houses and flats with different ways their waste is collected.

“We must be considering less packaging and using materials, less materials that need to be recycled.”

Carole Mulroney, Lib Dem cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “We are one of the few authorities which continues to provide a weekly waste and recycling collection service, and our weekly recycling rate is above the national average.

“There is always room for improvement and we will continue to work closely with our waste contractor, Veolia, to ensure recycling is at the forefront of our residents’ minds, and so that we can continue to work ahead of the national averages for waste and recycling collections.”

Speaking about the erroneous figures supplied to Channel 4, Mr Gilbert, said: “I don’t know the details of the freedom of information request with Channel Four but I was told the wrong information was given from a spreadsheet - it was human error and we apologise.”