Recycling drops in England, high prevalence of child labour in Bangladesh and UK farms forced to generate alternative income

Recycling rates fall in England 

Household recycling rates in England dropped in 2015 after a decade or more of gradual growth. The amount of recyclable rubbish collected by council-led kerbside schemes fell to 43.9% of household waste, down from 44.8% the year before. The main cause of the drop was a 4.8% year-on-year decrease in organic recycling. England’s recycling performance now puts it just behind Scotland (44.2%) and well behind Wales (61%). England has a commitment to meet the EU recycling target of 50% of household waste by 2020. Although overall recycling rates have dropped, so too has the total amount of waste generated per household. According to the Office of National Statistics, the total household waste reduced by 0.6% in 2015 to 22m tonnes, equivalent to 407kg per person. Even so, the total amount of domestic recyclable rubbish sent for recycling fell by 2.7%, to nearly 9.8m tonnes. Newham borough in London had the lowest recycling rate in England, at 15%, while South Oxfordshire district council had the highest, at 67%. Around 20% of all local authority waste, which totalled 26.1m tonnes last year, ended up being sent to landfill. A further 35% was incinerated.

1.6 million children in Dhaka forced to work

The line between exploitative under-age working and children supporting their families alongside education is sometimes a fine one. In the case of Dhaka’s slums, however, it’s a line that is crossed with considerable frequency. According to a new report by the Overseas Development Institute, 15% of 6- to 14-year-old children in slum areas of the Bangladeshi capital are out of school and working full-time. The number increases with age, with nearly half of 14 year-olds in work. The average working week for these under-age workers is 64 hours, well above the 48-hour week of adults in the European Union. In total, around 4% of Bangladeshis under the age of 17 work, equivalent to around 3.4 million children. Around 1.6 million of these are considered to be facing conditions that constitute child labour. Globally, an estimated 317 million children are “economically active”, many of them in full-time work, according to the United Nations. Of these, 218 million could be regarded as child labourers. In the 5-14 years age group, around 191 million children are economically active, with 166 million fitting the description of child labourers. An estimated 74 million of these are in hazardous work. The Sustainable Development Goals, agreed by 193 countries last year, commit to eradicating child labour by 2025.

UK farms diversify to remain afloat

The UK government will match the £4.88bn it currently receives from the European Union to support domestic agriculture when it triggers Article 50 next year and begins the process of separating from the EU. In total, around £3bn of this goes to UK farmers, of which around 20% (£600m) is targeted at environmental protection measures. Even so, as question marks around future subsidies remain, farmers in England are increasingly looking to alternatives to remain afloat. According to the government-led 2015/16 Farm Business Survey, 62% of farms in England now boast a non-agricultural revenue stream. Income from farm diversification totaled £580m in England over the last financial year, up 9% on the previous year. Average income from non-agricultural activities, such as renewable energy generation or the rental of farm buildings, is £16,600 per farm. For more than one quarter of farming businesses with diversifications, non-agricultural income exceeds revenues generated from traditional agriculture.