Recycling minister Lord Taylor today (February 2) praised householders for their recycling efforts as he unveiled the latest provisional quarterly recycling statistics for England.
But, he warned that it was important not to become complacent if England were to become a zero waste economy.
“We are determined to make it as easy as possible to achieve our ultimate aim of a zero waste economy”
Lord Taylor
For the second quarter of 2011/12 (July-September 2011), 45% of household waste was sent for recycling, compost and reuse two percentage points higher than for the same period a year before.
And, when looked at over the course of the rolling year to minimise the effect of any seasonal fluctuations, this means that 42.5% was recycled between October 2010 and September 2011.
In the statistical release accompanying the figures, the 42.5% figure is compared to the 41.5% recycling rate achieved in the financial year April 2010-March 2011 to show what progress has been made.
The 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 CA 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.
Notably, the figures also show a 7.6% fall in the amount of local authority collected waste sent to landfill between the 2010/11 financial year and the year ending September 2011.
Commenting on the figures, Lord Taylor said: Right across the country households are doing the right thing by recycling more, and were seeing that pay off by keeping 1.4 million tonnes of waste from rotting in landfill over the past year thats enough to fill Wembley stadium twice.
‘Determined’
However, Lord Taylor warned that there was a lot more to do if the government were to achieve its aim of a zero waste, as outlined in the 2011 Waste Review.
He said: There is no room for complacency and by working with councils and businesses, we are determined to make it as easy as possible to achieve our ultimate aim of a zero waste economy.
The key results are:
- Household recycling has increased: The proportion of household waste sent for recycling, composting or reuse between October 2010 to September 2011 in England was 42.5%, increasing from 41.5%in the financial year April 2010 and March 2011.
- Household waste production has decreased: The generation of household waste continued to decrease between the financial year 2010/11 and the rolling year October 2010 to September 2011, with a 1.4% reduction to 23.1 million tonnes.
- Waste generation per person has decreased: The weight of household waste generated in the year October 2010 to September 2011 in England, in kilograms per person, was 443 kg per person. Of this total, 188 kg was recycled, composted or reused whilst 255 kg was not.
- Local authority collected waste sent to landfill has declined: The tonnage of local authority collected waste being sent to landfill by local authorities has decreased by 7.6% to 10.5 million tonnes between the financial year 2010/11 and the rolling year October 2010 to September 2011.
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Looking at the regions, the East remained the region with the best household waste recycling performance at 49.7%, followed by the South West (42.5%). London remained by far the worst region for recycling, recycling 33.4% of its household waste compared to the second worst performer, the North East (37.7%).
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.
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