Mr Bradshaw said results of council recycling within yesterday's Municipal Waste Management Survey publication were “a step in the right direction”, and that he hoped the upwards trend would continue for 2004/05.
– Ben Bradshaw
The survey confirmed that England reached a 17.7% recycling rate for household waste in 2003/04, surpassing the 17% target (see letsrecycle.com story). It also confirmed that for the first time there has been an absolute reduction in the amount of household waste being sent to landfill – down 1% to 29.1 million tonnes.
The minister revealed that the government is intending to publish provisional (unaudited) results for recycling in 2004/05 within the next few weeks.
Mr Bradshaw said: “In 2003/04, recycling was up over 3% compared to the previous year, and I hope to see further progress in the 2004/05 data, which we should have in the next few weeks.
“We have set ourselves a target to recycle 25% of municipal waste by 2005/06; it's achievable, but we will all need to play our part,” he added.
The results for recycling in 2004/05 will come in the form of the Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI) which, though unaudited, will provide a good indication of the level of recycling being achieved, Defra said.
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