The recycling rate for local authority collected waste in Wales has fallen for the first time in two decades, according to figures released yesterday by the Welsh Government.
For 2017-18, the percentage of municipal waste that was reused, recycled or composted across the 22 Welsh local authorities fell to 62.7%, from 63.8% in 2016-17.
Click to enlarge: A graph showing municipal waste collected and recycled in Wales
Waste collected
The total amount of municipal waste collected decreased by around 2.5% to 1.55 million tonnes over the financial year. The amount of waste sent for recycling also dropped by 43,304 tonnes to just over 971 thousand tonnes.
According to the Welsh Government, the drop in recycling rate is partly due to improvements in the accuracy of wood end destination reporting in 2017-18. “All Welsh local authorities are now accounting for, and reporting a proportion of rejects from intermediate wood sorting facilities to disposal,” it says.
Also, the document points to a drop of Incinerator Bottom Ash (including metals) reported as recycled compared with 2016-17.
The Welsh figure of 62.7% includes the reuse of IBA into concrete which is counted towards the final rate. IBA cannot however be included in the figures returned to the EU or used in the calculation of the UK national recycling rate and is not used by English local authorities.
Recycled IBA made up 4.9% of the Welsh recycling rate for 2017-18, compared to 5.5% last year. This means the recycling rate, using similar counting methods as in England is 57.8%.
The Welsh Government puts the drop in IBA down to “some local authorities sending more residual waste to landfill as opposed to incineration as a contingency, following closure of a facility” (see letsrecycle.com story). Other Welsh local authorities generally sent less residual waste for incineration.
Bridgend’s recycling rate jumped by 10.7 percentage points to 68.6% in 2017-18
These two factors equate to a reduction of around 1.5 percentage points, the Welsh Government estimates.
Local authorities
Isle of Anglesey had the highest rate of all the 22 local authorities in Wales in 2017-18, with 72.2% of waste reused/recycled/composted. Blaenau Gwent council had the lowest rate at 56%.
Bridgend reported the largest rise in recycling for 2017-18. The council’s recycling rate jumped by 10.7 percentage points to 68.6%. The result follows the introduction of a two bin bag limit on the amount of waste that residents can throw out each fortnight, which came into effect in June 2017.
Wales had on average 184kg of residual household waste per person, a decrease of 5 per cent compared to 2016-17.
‘Disappointing’
“Whilst it is disappointing to see a small net decrease, our recycling rate of nearly 63% is still well above our national target of 58% for this year.”
Hannah Blythyn
Welsh Government
Responding to the latest statitistics for local authority managed municipal waste, Welsh environment minister, Hannah Blythyn said: “Whilst it is disappointing to see a small net decrease, our recycling rate of nearly 63% is still well above our national target of 58% for this year.
“There are a number of reasons why we have seen a slight net fall, including a change in the way data is reported for non-household items such as wood and ash from incinerators.
“We are incredibly proud of our recycling performance in Wales. We’ve achieved this through policies made in Wales, with legally-binding recycling targets for councils, investment in infrastructure and public information campaigns.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
