Recycling Rate and Targets

• Government Targets

• The Landfill Directive

• Waste Strategy 2007

• Household Waste Statistics 

Government Target 

In July 2000 the Government produced a National Waste Strategy for England and Wales. The Waste Strategy 2000 document set out the Government's vision for the long-term, sustainable management of waste and also set targets for waste recycling, recovery and diversion from landfill to ensure that the European legislation, in relation to the use of landfill for the disposal of waste, would be met.

The Landfill Directive 

The Landfill Directive is a piece of European Legislation that governs the future use of landfill as a means of disposal.  By setting quite stringent targets for reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill, the Directive aims to achieve the following:

To reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste landfilled to

75% of that produced in 1995 by 2010.

50% of that produced in 1995 by 2013.

35% of that produced in 1995 by 2020.

The Directive also makes changes to the types of material that can be disposed of.

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Waste Strategy 2007 

Waste Strategy for England 2007sets higher national targets for recycling, composting and recovery than in 2000 have been set for.

To recycling and compost at least  40% of household waste by 2010

                                                   45% of household waste by 2015

                                                   50% of household waste by 2020

To recover 53% of municipal waste by 2010

                67% of municipal waste by 2015

                75% of municipal waste by 2020.

The Council has set challenging targets, in excess of the Government targets, for increasing the amount of household materials that are recycled or composted and decreasing the amount of materials that are sent to landfill.  The  current target is to recycle or compost at least 40% of household materials. 

The achievement in reducing the quantity of waste sent to landfill is not just down to Biffa Leicester, it is also thanks to the people of Leicester City working together with us by using the Recycling Schemes, Community Recycling Centres and Recycling Banks.

Household Waste Statistics

Each year we record how much waste we produce in Leicester and what happens to it;

• how much is recycled (recycling rate)

• how much is composted (composting rate)

• how much is recovered i.e. used as an alternative fuel to produce heat and power (recovery rate)

These rates show us how much waste we have diverted away from landfill.

Below are the figures for Leicester since 2002/03.

You can see that in 2011/12 our recycling rate jumped up by more than 4% as a result of the introduction of the new orange recycling service part way through the year.  We also managed to diverted almost 70% of our waste away from landfill, which is a fantastic achievement which we hope to continue to build on.

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