England’s Recycling Rate increases by less than 1%

The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) released its new 2019/20 statistics on waste managed by the local authorities in England.

Rogier Gerritsen, Managing Director of DS Smith Recycling Division, comments on the new data and urges for change.

"It is disappointing to see that the latest government figures from Defra indicate our recycling infrastructure has yet again failed to move significantly forward. At a less than a 1% increase to 45.5%, this means we are still trailing significantly behind our overall targets and leaves us lagging behind other European nations, such as Germany which is recording a rate of 67%."

"We urgently need a reform around our collection infrastructure and the best way for us to improve recycling rates is to focus on quality – in particular, paper and cardboard as the packaging with the highest recycling rate would benefit from a consistent source segregated collection of recyclables to avoid the contamination of valuable materials in mixed collections."

"With consultations around consistency and other areas of waste and recycling legislation set to take place this year, we urge the government to accelerate moves to an infrastructure that supports high-quality material for recycling."