England breaks the 30% barrier for household recycling

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has today published figures which show that the proportion of household waste being recycled in England has broken the 30% barrier for the first time.  The figures show that municipal waste being recycled or composted increased from 27.1 per cent in 2005/06 to 30.7 per cent in 2006/07. 

The figures collected from local authorities also show that the overall amount of municipal waste collected has increased by 1.4% to 29.1 million tonnes.  This is compared to 28.7 million tonnes in 2005/06.

There continues to be variations in household recycling and composting rates between different regions with regional recycling rates ranging from 22 per cent in London to over 35 per cent in the East, East Midlands and South West.

The proportion of municipal waste with some value recovered from it (recycling, composting, energy from waste and fuel manufacture) also varies by region from the West Midlands recovering value from 58 per cent of their municipal waste to the North West with a recovery rate of 34 per cent.

For more information visit the Defra website.