The data, which covers the third quarter of the 2011/12 financial year, shows that 41.4% of household waste was sent for reuse, recycling or compostingbetween October and December 2011. This is a rise of 1.8 percentage points compared to the sameperiod the year before, when 39.6% was recycled.
And, whenthis achievementis combined with the performance over the previous three quarters, to minimise seasonal fluctuations, this means that 42.9% was recycled during the 2011 calendar year. This is up 2.1 percentage points when compared to the 2010 calendar year (40.8%) and 1.4 percentage points when compared to the 2010/11 financial year (41.5%).
Landfill
The quarterly figures also show a significant 15%fall in the amount of local authority collected waste sent to landfill when compared to the same quarter the year before (from 2,554 tonnes to 2,165 tonnes). The amount sent to landfill also fell by 11% in the calendar year(to 10.1 million tonnes) compared to the 2010/11 financial year.
Commenting on the figures, Defra said the fall in waste to landfill was ‘good news’ but that more needed to be done to reach its aim of zero waste.
ADefra spokesperson said: The amount of waste sent to rot in landfill continues to fall and more household waste is being recycled. The 15 per cent drop in the amount of waste sent to landfill is very good news but there is no room for complacency and we will continue to push for further reductions to achieve our aim of a zero waste economy.
The statistical release looks at both household waste as well as local authority collected waste. Household waste is defined as all waste arising from households including waste from kerbside collections and civic amenity sites. Local authority collected waste is all waste collected by councils, which includes household waste as well as some commercial and industrial waste and construction and demolition waste.
Story continues below
Table showing recycling rates and waste arising for local authority collected waste
|
Q3 2010/11 |
Q4 2010/11 |
2010/11 |
Q1 2011/12 |
Q2 2011/12 |
Q3 2011/12 |
2011 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Household waste recycling (%) |
40 | 40 | 41.5 | 45 | 45 | 41 | 42.9 |
|
LACW recycling (%) |
38 | 39 | 40.4 | 44 | 44 | 40 | 41.9 |
|
Household waste (thousand tonnes) |
5287 | 5668 | 23454 | 6138 | 6040 | 5393 | 23239 |
|
LACW (thousand tonnes) |
5865 | 6319 | 26200 | 6858 | 6716 | 5951 | 25845 |
|
LACW sent to landfill (thousand tonnes) |
2554 | 2798 | 11391 | 2678 | 2495 | 2165 | 10135 |
Looking at the household recycling rate for the 2011 calendar year shows that 42.9% was recycled – up 2.1 percentage points when compared to the 2010 calendar year (40.8%) and 1.4 percentage points when compared to the 2010/11 financial year (41.5%). It also represents a 0.4 percentage point increase from the rolling year to September 2011.
Despite this progress, the amount of waste arising increased to 5,393,000 tonnes in the third quarter 2011/12, compared to 5,287,000 tonnes for the same period in 2010. However the generation of household waste continued to decrease between the financial year 2010/11 and the rolling year January to December 2011, with a 0.9% reduction to 23.2 million tonnes.
Local Authority
Waste sent to landfill represents 39% of the total amount of local authority collected waste in 2011, a sharp decrease compared to the 78% sent to landfill in 2001/02. An additional 18% of the waste was sent to energy-from-waste facilities for incineration, 40% was sent for composting, recycling or reuse and the remaining 2% was sent to other forms of treatment.
In tonnage terms more waste was recycled, composted or reused (10.8 million tonnes) than was sent to landfill.
Looking at Englands regions, the East remains on top with a quarterly household recycling rate of 48%, and a rate of 49.9% for 2011. The South West is following in second place with a quarterly rate of 46% and a yearly rate of 47.1%.
The statistics are based on data submitted by all local authorities in England to the governments WasteDataFlow database. Final estimates for 2011/12 will be published in November 2012.
UK
Related Links
The latest figures show that England remains ahead of Northern Ireland and Scotland in terms of household recycling rates. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency revealed this week that it achieve a 36.7% recycling rate for the third quarter of 2011/12 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Meanwhile figures from Northern Ireland show that the country achieved a 39.7% household recycling rate for 2011/12 (see letsrecycle.com story).
However Wales remains out in front with 49% household recycling rate for the period between October and December 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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