On my way to work this morning I noticed something. Many houses had their recycling bins outside ready for collection, but many didn’t. It struck me that it’s still not second nature to us to know how and what we can recycle on a daily basis, despite making significant progress in recent years.

The issues are simple: we have made much progress with plastic recycling, we know the environmental benefits and we want to recycle as much as we can. But there are barriers to further progress.

And there is a financial price too: we have a plastic household recycling target to reach by 2020. As it stands, we still have a long way to go.

It can be done. I believe the evidence shows we will need a combination of investment in infrastructure by local authorities and excellent recycling service delivery, coupled with effective communications for householders to follow.