England – household recycling doubles in four years

Recycling of household waste has doubled in the last four years, according to new provisional figures published by the UK Government‘‘s Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).



The figures show that English households recycled more than a fifth of their waste, (approaching 23%) in 2004/05. They are the first signal of recycling rates in 2004/05 which, though unaudited, provide a good indication of the level being achieved. Performance around the country varies with, on average, residents in the North East recycling the least (16%) and people in East of England recycling the most (29%). The greatest leap has been in the East Midlands, up 7% on last year to 27%.



Local Environmental Quality Minister, Ben Bradshaw, said: “We‘‘ve doubled the amount we recycle in just four years. Every person in England is currently recycling enough to fill 8 green wheelie bins, but we could be recycling as much as 20 bins worth – up to 60% of our waste. And local authorities will have to look at improving their recycling rates too. We want to be well on the way to our 2010 target of 30% of waste being recycled – sooner rather than later.



According to WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme), which runs the Government‘‘s national Recycle Now campaign for England, every household could recycle up to 60% of its waste. This is reflected in some European recycling rates: Germany recycles 57% of its waste; Netherlands recycles 64%; and Denmark 41% -levels of recycling that some English local authorities, like Lichfield, are already reaching.



In future, all local authorities will have to maintain and improve their recycling levels. Defra will publish a consultation shortly with proposals for new statutory performance standards for 2007/08. All authorities are encouraged to continue to perform above any statutory minimum to meet their own local performance standards and to meet Landfill Allowance strategies and landfill tax pressures. Later in the year, Government will consult, as part of the review of Waste Strategy 2000, on the format and level of any future performance standards for local authorities.



In the meantime, Defra and the WRAP are continuing to work with local authorities and retailers to pilot and roll out new ways – from new technology at recycling ‘‘bring‘‘ banks to financial incentives such as discount vouchers – to get people recycling more.



A new multi-million pilot programme of local authority household incentives is due to start in October which will pilot, test and assess various approaches to incentivising household behaviour.



Recycling facts and figures





Households in England produce 25 million tonnes of waste every year. Over half of this consists of garden waste, waste paper and board, and kitchen waste

On average every person in the UK now produces about seven times their own weight in waste a year

What makes up household waste? Garden Waste 20%, Scrap metal/White goods 5%, Wood 5%, Dense plastic 4%, Plastic film 4%, Textiles 3%, Metal packaging 3%, Nappies 2%, Soil 3%, Paper and Board 18%, Kitchen Waste 17%, General Household Sweepings 9% and Glass 7%

Around 20% of the food we buy off supermarket shelves goes straight to the bin. This means that every household throws away £424 of wasted food each year

Over 40 per cent of the waste in our bins is retail packaging – some 4.5 million tonnes of it

How much does it cost to get rid of our waste? Only around £50 per household per year, but most people believe they pay up to £260 for their local waste services

If all the aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK were recycled there would be 14 million fewer dustbins of waste each year

2004/5 figures



The estimates are provisional figures based on unaudited Best Value Performance Indicators submitted by Local authorities to the Audit Commission.<