Environment
Recycling increases across all regions
Proportion of household waste recycled, 2004/05 and 2005/06
Households in England produced on average 23 kg of waste per week in 2005/06. Within the UK, Northern Ireland produced the most waste at 26 kg and London the least with 20 kg per household each week.
Households in the East region recycled the highest proportion of waste produced in 2005/06 at 34 per cent. As in previous years, the North East recycled the lowest amount of household waste, joined by London in 2005/06, both with only 21 per cent. Between 2004/05 and 2005/06, Scotland had the greatest increase of 8 percentage points in the amount recycled, closely followed by the North East, East Midlands and Northern Ireland with an increase of 6 percentage points.
In 2005/06, 36 per cent of recycled household waste in England was composted. This ranged from 25 per cent in London to over 40 per cent in the East Midlands, West Midlands and the East. Other significant proportions of materials recycled across England were paper and card (22 per cent), other materials (20 per cent), glass (11 per cent) and scrap metal/white goods (8 per cent).
Landfill is the most common method for local authorities to dispose of waste in Great Britain. It accounted for 64 per cent of the 34 million tonnes of waste disposed of in 2005/06. Wales and Scotland disposed of the highest proportion in landfill, with 73 per cent. West Midlands disposed of only 44 per cent of waste by this method. However the use of landfill decreased by an average of 10 percentage points in all regions between 2003/04 and 2005/06.
Across Great Britain 27 per cent of waste was recycled or composted and 9 per cent was incinerated with energy recovery. However, 31 per cent of West Midlands’ waste was disposed of by incineration with energy recovery. This method was not used at all in Wales and the South West.
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