Local authorities can boost their recycling rates by over 1% and save over £450k in waste disposal if they introduced a bulky waste collection service. Figures by WRAP suggest that 50% of goods that are taken to the recycling centre could be reused.
Aluminium can recycling in Ireland has skyrocketed to 73%, up from 54% in 2016, Repak have reported that 7 out of every 10 cans in Ireland are now recycled. A big contributer to this was the launch of 'Every Can Counts' programme.
For the first time on record, Wigan Council collected more green waste than general waste last week due to the warmer weather. The residents recycled more food and put less waste into their wheelie bins, throughout May the towns recycling rates increased to 50%.
The Mayor of London has promised to increase the recycling levels in London, this is following a plublication of a report on the city's waste. The findings of the report have showed that households in London want to recycle more but the current scheme in place is holding them back.
The UK government is opposing new recycling targets set by the EU even though it pledged tp develop new targes and milestones themselves. The European parliament voted on a new target of 65% by 2035 which the UK refused saying meeting the target of 65% by 2030 would save around £10 billion in waste related costs.
The household recycling rate in England has rised in just above 45% for 2016/17 after dropping last year, this is partly down to the increase in the use of energy from waste facilities and separate food waste collections. This is generally the creation of energy from waste that we throw away just by using combustion ot produce heat, steam or electricity, this includes fuels like methane and ethanol.
Malta is Europe's worst recycler, only 6.7% of all waste in malta despite there being a push towards better waste management, to put it in context the average in Europe is 45%. The Environment Minister said that recycling would become compulsory under new waste legislation that is currently being drafted.
According to latest statistics, Belgium is one of the mos prolific recyclers in Europe with a whopping 81% compared to the average of 65% and this is mainly down to stringent waste regulations, sorting of waste is compulsory which makes the recycling element easier.
Leeds council are reviewing the city's recycling strategy after the recycling rates in the city plummeted. After reaching 44% in the last decade, the rates dropped to 38% in the last 2 years and it now looks like they are going to fail with the national target of 50% by 2020.
Northern Ireland is now at a record low of sending waste to landfill, as well as an increase of 3.6% to 50% for recycling rates, these are the first set of figures published since new regulations on separate food waste which came into force in April. Despite a very simple change it has made a significant increase in recycling for the region.