In a sign that local authorities are not rushing to sign up for work to harmonise collection systems across the UK, the resources charity, working with Defra, has called for more urban authorities to get involved.

The consistency framework is part of achieving a WRAP and Defra-supported vision, where every household in England can recycle a common set of dry recyclable materials and food waste, collected in one of three different ways.

Other areas also feature in the consistency plans including by 2025 an ambition to have packaging designed to be “recyclable, where practical and environmentally beneficial, and is labelled clearly to indicate whether it can be recycled or not”, making it easier for households to recycle more.

WRAP claims that greater consistency could result in 11.6 million tonnes of materials and food waste collected for recycling over eight years – which would increase household recycling rate in England by 7%. And consistency could save reprocessors £33 million in costs of contamination.