How have landfill and recycling rates changed over the years?published at 09:31 GMT
09:31 GMT
If we look back to the start of the century, local authorities in England sent 22 million tonnes of waste to landfill in 2000-01.
There’s been a 94% drop since then, with the figure for 2023-24 standing at 1.4 million tonnes.
The amount of household waste recycled shot up over that period, at least initially. In 2000-01, just 11% of household waste was recycled.
That figure had reached 42% by 2010-11.
But things have levelled off since then.
From 2010-11, Defra switched from calculating ‘household waste’ to ‘waste from households’ – a very similar name, but the two figures aren’t directly comparable.
That new recycling metric was also at 42% in 2010-11.
In 2023-24, the most recent year available, the figure was at 44%.
Defra’s target is to reach 65% in 2035.
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