Wales breaks UK recycling record

Wales has recorded the highest recycling rates of any UK nation ever, recycling 49% of their waste between July and September 2011

The new figures also show that Wales produced 388,000 tonnes of municipal waste in the period, 5% less than the same period in 2010. Per person household waste in Wales fell by 10 kg.

Environment minister, John Griffiths said: “One of the reasons for our good progress is the fact that every local authority in Wales offers weekly food collection services. Separating out food waste not only diverts significant waste away from landfill, it also makes us far more aware of the food we are wasting, which often results in reduced waste and lower food bills.”

Welsh Government hopes that Wales will hit a 50% recycling rate in the spring and summer months this year. The environment minister added: “The key thing now is that we continue to build on our recycling success so that we can meet our challenging targets of 70% recycling by 2025 and zero waste by 2050.”

A recent report by Friends of the Earth demonstrated that if the rest of the UK were to adopt 70% recycling, more than 50,000 new jobs could be created.