They show that the Welsh recycling rate now sits at 66.7% for the last 12-month period – an increase of 0.7% from the year ending June 2023. It is now the highest 12-month figure on record.
The recycling rate is calculated as the percentage of local authority municipal waste that was reused, recycled or composted. It has increased considerably in Wales over the last two decades – from about 5% in the late 1990s to the current rate of 66.7%.
The recycling rate for the three-month period between April to June 2024 sits at 68.8% which is an increase of 0.4% on the equivalent quarter in 2023, and the highest figure on record for an April to June quarter.
381,296 tonnes of municipal waste were generated in those three months, an increase of 0.3% on the same quarter of 2023 and a 2.6% increase on the same quarter of 2022.
Wales publishes its provisional data quarterly, with final data for the financial year published annually. In October last year, Wales released its municipal waste statistics for 2023/2024 which showed its recycling rate now sits at 66.6% – up 0.9% from 65.7% in 2022/2023.
A Welsh government spokesperson said at the time: “We’ve come a long way since the start of devolution where our recycling rate sat at 5%.
“We’re so proud of the hard work by the people of Wales and our Local Authorities to get us to this point and this year have increased our recycling rate by nearly one percentage point.
“We’re already number two in the world for our recycling and this will help us get closer to our goal of being number one!”
The government currently has statutory targets of recycling a minimum of 64% of waste by 2019/20, and 70% of waste by 2024/25.
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