The Recycling-Conscious Report: which English areas have the least wasteful mindsets?
 

This research was compiled by food waste disposer and hot water tap manufacturer InSinkErator.

In 2018, the UK produced around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste, according to the most recent report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) charity.

In response to the scale of the problem, the government has pledged to reduce food waste by 20% by 2025. It also introduced the Environmental Bill, which involves a commitment to end food waste going to landfill by 2030, as well as a promise to begin separate household food waste collections by 2023.

However, the latest data shows that separate food waste collections were only available in around a third of England’s district councils and unitary authorities (133 out of 309). What’s more, in 2020, less than half (47%) of municipal waste ending up in landfill was biodegradable.

Since waste collection is such a local issue, we at InSinkErator decided to discover which English local authorities are the most recycling-conscious. To do so, we carefully analysed data from the Government Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

Comparing data from several years has revealed which local authorities have done the most to reduce their waste output – and increase how much of this waste gets recycled or composted.
 

The recycling-conscious index
 

We’ve compiled all relevant data into an index and assigned a score for various criteria – to produce a final ‘recycling-conscious’ score. The higher a local authority’s rank, the better it’s performing across criteria such as waste production, how much waste is recycled and how their recycling efforts have progressed over the years.

Key findings

• The average score for England was 50
• The highest overall scores, dominated by the South, were:

• The best regional averages were:
  • London     59.6 (almost double the North East’s average score)
  • South West  59.0
  • South East  56.7

• The lowest overall scores were:

• The North performs poorly, with nine out of ten of the lowest scoring local authorities
• The worst regional averages were:
  • North West        43.8
  • East Midlands   41.4
  • North East         30.0
     

How much of England’s waste is being recycled and composted?
 

On average in 2020/21, 42% of England’s household waste was sent for reuse, recycling or composting. By contrast, Wales’ average was 65%, a huge 23% higher.

The English region with the highest average recycling rate was the South West, where almost half (49%) of waste is reused in some way. Despite scoring highly in the recycling-conscious index overall, London was the most wasteful region last year, with only a third (33%) of its waste being reused, recycled or composted.

Concentrated mainly in the South, the top 10 local authorities for reuse/recycling/composting rates in 2020/21 were:

Which areas are the worst for recycling and composting?

Half of the bottom 10 recyclers are in London, where the best rate is 50% in Bexley, which only ranks 72^nd at a national level.

Despite not having a local authority in the bottom 10, the North East also had a poor overall recycling rate of 34%, just slightly ahead of London’s 33%.
 

Which areas are the most-improved recyclers?
 

Looking at changes in rates of waste being sent for reuse, recycling or composting, which areas have made the most progress over the last 5 years?

Despite having relatively low rates of recycling, London boroughs are making big improvements. Compared to 2015/16 rates, five of the 10 most-improved local authorities are in London.

The majority of local authorities have actually gone backwards. Compared to 2015/16 figures, 178 authorities had a worse rate of recycling in 2020/21, while 153 authorities had a better rate.
 

Who is generating the most waste in England?
 

Without exception, every region of England has produced more waste, year-on-year, when comparing 2020/21 to 2019/20. However, the picture looks more promising when compared to figures from five years ago.

In those five years, the South East, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humber all reduced their waste per capita by 5%. Incredibly, London reduced its tally by a full quarter (25%), signalling a determined effort to cut waste on the part of Londoners.

At the other end of the scale, waste produced per person has shot up nearly a quarter (24%) in the east of England.

These are the local authorities that collected the most household waste in 2020/21:

People in the Isles of Scilly produced almost 600kg of waste per person in 2020/21, equivalent to – that’s the equivalent of 2,680 Big Macs, 18,461 packets of crisps or a kodiak bear.
 

Who is generating the least waste in England?
 

Overall, London’s residents generated the least waste. Of the 10 local authorities producing the lowest amounts of waste, nine are in London:
 

In Camden, the average person produced 186kg of collected waste in 2020/21. This is less than a third of the per capita waste on the Isles of Scilly, where people create more waste than any other English local authority.

Methodology

• We analysed Defra data to find the percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting, as well as collected household waste per person (kg) for each local authority in England. From this data, we were able to calculate the year-on-year figure and the five-year percentage change in rates of recycling and household waste collection per person.
• Some of the current local authorities have formed through the merging of existing authorities in recent years, meaning accurate five-year comparative data is not always available for all criteria. This applies to the following local authorities:
  • Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch Council
  • Buckinghamshire Council
  • Cambridge City and South Cambs Councils
  • Corby and Kettering Shared Service
  • Dorset Council
  • East Suffolk Council
  • Somerset Waste Partnership
  • West Suffolk council
• Our index consists of four key criteria:
  • % of waste reused, recycled or composted in 2020/21
  • Five-year % change in waste reused, recycled or composted
  • Collected household waste per person (kg) in 2020/21
  • Five-year change in collected household waste per person (kg)
• We then ranked the local authorities for each criterion and assigned a score based on their rank for each
• The final index score is based on an average of the scores for all criteria

Sources
 

• Defra: Local authority collected waste: annual results tables - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env18-local-authority-collected-waste-annual-results-tables
• Defra UK Statistics on Waste - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1002246/UK_stats_on_waste_statistical_notice_July2021_accessible_FINAL.pdf

WRAP: Food surplus and waste in the UK – key facts - https://wrap.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/food-%20surplus-and-%20waste-in-the-%20uk-key-facts-oct-21.pdf