Britain’s recycling rate still behind EU target of 50 per cent

BRITAIN will fail to meet EU targets to recycle half of household rubbish by 2020, according to the latest Government data.

Figures for 2017 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show that 45.7 per cent of household waste in the UK was recycled.

Under the Waste Framework Directive, EU members must meet a target to recycle 50 per cent of household waste by 2020. The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, but Defra said the 2020 target would still apply.

The figures show the amount of household waste recycled increased by 1.1 percentage points between 2015 and 2017. At this rate, it would take almost four years to reach the EU target.

Provisional figures also showed that recycling of packaging waste dropped 1.2 percentage points since the previous year. Some 70.2 per cent of UK packaging waste was either recycled or recovered in 2017, down from 71.4 per cent in 2016. Despite this, the UK is comfortably exceeding the EU target to recover at least 60 per cent of packaging waste.

One of the biggest increases has been in the recycling of plastic, which reflects increasing public awareness of its impact on the environment. The amount recycled rose more than eight percentage points in four years, with 46.2 per cent being recycled or recovered in 2017.

A Defra spokesman said: “While we have made progress, we recognise rates have plateaued in recent years. That’s why through our landmark resources and waste strategy we will overhaul the waste system so we can go further and faster.

“We will introduce a consistent set of recyclable materials collected from all households in England, including plans for weekly collections of food waste, as well as consistent labelling on packaging to drive up recycling rates.”