Same country – different recycling

What would you say is a reasonable difference in household recycling rates between the best and worst regions of a country? 10%? 20%?

There are 2 disturbing findings in the June issue of Britain’s Which? consumer watchdog magazine.

The first is that UK waste recycling declined in 2015/16 from 44.9% to 44.3%. This cannot be acceptable.

The second is that the best Council of South Oxfordshire at 66.6% was several times better than the lowest performing London Borough of Newham on 14.7%, a difference of 353%.

There is, however, light at the bottom of the bin bag. Richmondshire District Council increased its recycling by 14.7 percentage points, the same as the total for Newham, to 52.4% in just one year.