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Defra delays publishing council waste data for ‘other priorities’

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has delayed the release of the statistics on waste collected by local authorities in 2021/22 until February to March 2023.

Defra's data relates to all the household, non-household and commercial waste collected by local authorities in England in 2021/22 (picture: Shutterstock)

The data relates to all the household, non-household and commercial waste collected by local authorities in England between April 2021 and March 2022.

Defra published the data for 2020/21 in December last year and was expected to release the most recent data on a similar date this time round (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, a Defra spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “The publication of the annual local authority waste statistics for 2021/22 has been rescheduled around other priorities.”

The spokesperson did not expand on what those “other priorities” might be.

Though Defra usually publishes the data for the previous financial year the following November or December, during the Covid-19 pandemic it twice delayed releasing the data for 2019/20 until March 2021 (see letsrecycle.com story).

2020/21

Among other things, the data shows English local authorities’ total household waste recycling, composting and reuse rate for the year.

St Albans council received a trophy from letsrecycle.com for being the top recycling council in England in 2020/21

Figures published by Defra last December show St Albans city and district council was the best local authority in England at recycling in 2020/21.

The council’s household waste recycling rate rose from 63% in the 2019/20 financial year to 64.2%.

South Oxfordshire district council had the second highest recycling rate at 63.6%, while the champions of 2019/20 – Three Rivers district council in Hertfordshire – completed the top three with a rate of 63.1%.

As the 2020/21 champions, St Albans received a prestigious trophy from letsrecycle.com in March this year (see letsrecycle.com story).

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