Welsh recycling rate rises again

The municipal recycling rate in Wales has gone up to 65.7% – higher than the country’s statutory target of 64%. It is one of the highest national figures in the world.

Seventeen of Wales’ 22 local authorities exceeded the 64% target, with 12 reporting an increase in performance on the previous year.

In 2024-25, the statutory minimum target will raise to 70%, a figure which has already been met by five Welsh local authorities: Swansea, Pembrokeshire, Bridgend, Ceredigion and Monmouthshire Investment by the Government of £1 billion (EUR 1.17 billion) since devolution in 1998 has seen the rate, the percentage of local authority collected municipal waste that is reused, jump from just 4.8% at that time.

Less to landfill The figures also show the lowest ever amount of waste sent to landfill, falling from 42.0% in 2013 to 1.6% in 2023, which comfortably exceeds the Welsh Government’s target of less than 5% landfill by 2025.

Climate change minister Julie James says Wales can be proud to have saved around 400 000 tonnes of CO2 per year from being released into the atmosphere.

‘Our recycling track record and now near total shift away from landfill is a fantastic platform for us to build on to tackle the climate and nature emergencies, but now is not the time to get complacent.”

Earlier this month, the Senedd passed the Workplace Recycling Regulations to require all business, public and third sector workplaces to separate key recyclable materials in the way that householders already do across most of Wales. The law will come into force in April 2024.