This is said to be due to England’s falling recycling rate of 43.4%. Scotland’s recycling rate was the lowest at 42.1%, but it had improved from 41.7% the previous year.
Having recently placed second in the world for recycling, Wales recycling rate of 56.9% is said to be due to having food waste bins for more than a decade. Some areas in Wales, however, have a rate of 70%. England and Scotland were beaten by Northern Ireland, which scored 49.2%.
The UK is said to have generated 191.2m tonnes of waste in 2020, with England responsible for 85% of it.
‘Deeply disappointing’
Mary Creagh, the minister for the circular economy, said: “It is deeply disappointing to see recycling rates have fallen, and to see the build-up of litter and fly-tipping in our cities, towns and villages.
“The new government will move towards a zero-waste economy to increase recycling rates, draw in billions from private sector investment and create thousands of green jobs.”
Rudy Schulkind, a political campaigner at Greenpeace UK said: “These statistics are yet another example of the broken waste management system left over by the last government. The truth is the previous Tory government fumbled the ball, putting too much faith in our broken recycling system whilst failing to bring forward vital, meaningful measures like the delayed deposit return scheme.
“This statistics should be a wake up call for the new government. Our recycling system is falling behind while mountains of waste are dumped, burned, or shipped off to poorer countries. It is being undermined by huge volumes of cheap virgin plastic flooding the market.
“We need a bold new approach which focuses on reducing the amount of waste we produce in the first place. This November, the final round of negotiations on the Global Plastics Treaty offers a last chance saloon to tackle plastic pollution. We need a strong, legally binding global target to cut plastic production.”
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