Last December, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published the latest recycling data for local authorities in England. The data covered the financial year 2017/18.
The following table reflects the top ten recycling authorities in England:
Figure 1: Top Ten Recycling Authorities in England
EU Targets 50% Municipal Recycling Waste by December 2020
Defra has taken to publishing financial data for local authorities annually to meet tough EU requirements, which has a 50% recycling target for municipal waste. This target requires compliance by December 2020.
The latest trends indicate an across-the-board 0.3% reduction in recycling rates – 44.8% as opposed to 45.1% previously reported. This included some improvements, although more than 60% of local authorities filed lower returns than the previous year.
As already mentioned, the table above reflects the league’s top 10 English local authorities in terms of household waste. This data is from industry watchdog ‘WasteDataFlow’ and Defra’s statistical department for the period covering the financial year 2017/18. Local authorities appear in overall performance order. We also provide the bottom 10 performers using the same criteria.
The following table reflects the bottom ten recycling authorities in England:
Figure 1: Bottom Ten Recycling Authorities in England
Fascinating Reading
League tables always make interesting reading. If properly structured they promote fairness and competition across the board. Surely, most authorities would want to improve their ranking going forward. All said and done, a trophy of some kind beats the wooden spoon!
