New figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have revealed that England’s ‘waste from households’ recycling rate has risen to 45.1 per cent – a 0.3 per cent increase on last year’s statistics.
According to Defra’s latest ‘Statistics on waste managed by local authorities in England in 2018/19’, the total volume of waste from households across 2018/19 was 22.1 million tonnes, compared to 22.2 million tonnes in 2017/18. The amount of waste sent to recycling remained stable at 10 million tonnes.
Dry recycling, which includes Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA), increased by 0.6 per cent, according to the figures. Organic recycling, on the other hand, fell by 0.5 per cent due to a 16.7 per cent decrease in ‘other organics’ recycled in summer 2018, when the hot weather stunted plant growth.
With regard to incineration, the figures reveal that the amount of waste sent to energy-from-waste (EfW) facilities continues to rise, increasing by 3.4 per cent to 11.2 million tonnes. This means that 43.8 per cent of all local authority waste was incinerated in 2018/19.
You can view the statistics in full on the Defra website.