Monmouthshire County Council is the top recycling authority in Wales, according to the latest official figures. Between July and September last year, recycling, reuse and composting rates reached 66% in Monmouthshire, significantly above the Welsh average of 57%.
County Councillor Bryan Jones, cabinet member with responsibility for waste disposal and recycling said:
“We are really pleased to have achieved a 66% recycling rate over July, August and September last year. We put this amazing performance down to our public for adopting so brilliantly the changes that were introduced on 1st July and I’d like to thank them for helping us to exceed our targets. We were brave last year in introducing the two bag restriction. There were concerns that it wouldn’t work, but we had every confidence that this would result in less waste to landfill and more importantly an increase in recycling, and these figures prove that we were right to do so. For the future we are looking to maintain these levels and continue to work and engage with our communities to ensure Monmouthshire remains a top recycling county.”
The figures for Wales show that black bin waste has fallen 6% to 52kg per person compared to the same quarter in 2012. Last year Wales reached its statutory target of recycling 52% of waste collected and the next recycling target is 58% of waste collected by local authorities in 2015/16.
Minister for Natural Resources and Food Alun Davies, said:
“I want to thank households and councils in Wales for their efforts and commitment to recycling. Welsh households are taking advantage of weekly food waste collections, and campaigns such as Love Food, Hate Waste are helping people to waste less and save money on food shopping.
“It’s also great to see a continued decrease in black bin waste. It shows Wales is leading the way in the UK towards a zero waste future.”
The local authorities with the highest recycling rates are Monmouthshire (66%) followed by Pembrokeshire and Denbighshire (62%) and Bridgend and Caerphilly (60%).
