Sunderland tops league for bulky waste collections with zero landfilled

Freedom of Information requests sent to the North East’s councils show “significant data gaps” on where authorities send bulky items they collect, with two in three councils giving no information on how they handle them.

Gumtree, who collected the data, concluded that the North East’s inconsistent approach to the recycling, reuse and data recording of bulky items is “harming the circular economy”, with no items recorded as being recycled or identified as eligible for reuse.

Households can make £570 selling the most popular bulky items rather than paying an average of £21 to have them collected.

However, each residential property in Sunderland can currently receive free bulky waste collections, subject to availability.

North East households pay an estimated £9.7m to have bulky household items collected, although 12 of the 17 councils did not provide data on how these items are handled.

Of 445,847 bulky items collected by five North East councils between May 2021 and April 2023, Sunderland collected the most (246,520), followed by South Tyneside (82,539), Northumberland (44,743), Redcar and Cleveland (38,295) and Newcastle (33,750).

However, with so few councils responding, the actual number of bulky items collected by councils is unknown and probably much higher.

The data also reveals a lack of knowledge about the number of bulky household items sent to landfill. However, Sunderland, Durham County and South Tyneside recorded zero items being landfilled.

Hugh Hurley, CEO of Gumtree, said: “The circular economy across the North East is broken and needs urgent attention.

“In 2021, we called upon the government to do more to promote reuse and second-hand goods in the UK, and we have seen no significant change.

“With consumer consumption continuing to rise, the circular economy must form a larger part of the national net zero strategy.

“We must change our approach to how and where we buy what we need before it’s too late.”

A large household fridge costs an average £1,057 to buy new, or £250 used on Gumtree. The CO2 equivalent to produce one new is 5,031kg.