New figures published by WRAP Cymru show 92% of glass was captured by Wales’ kerbside recycling system last year – the highest of any widely recycled material.
Across all materials, the overall kerbside recycling capture rate in Wales has improved from 72% in 2015 to 84% in 2022. The statistics show putrescible waste accounted for 34.3% of the overall municipal solid waste collected – this included food waste (17.9%), garden waste (11.1%) and other organic waste (5.3%).
Paper and card was the next biggest category at 15.2% and was made up of 7.5% recyclable cards, 4.4% recyclable paper, and 3.4% non-recyclable fibres. Dense plastic accounted for 5.8% of municipal solid waste, while plastic film accounted for 3.5%.
The analysis also showed that of the 1.51 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) collected in 2021/2022, 882,000 tonnes were collected for recycling either at the kerbside or via other types of collection.
The proportion of kerbside residual waste which was widely recyclable was 36.5%. On average 24.7% of the kerbside residual waste analysed was food waste, while 11.8% consisted of widely recycled dry recycling materials.
The analysis showed 34.8% of waste managed by local authorities in Wales was not recycled. Of the 62.5% of material which was recycled, the main categories were garden waste (10.2%), rubble and aggregates (9.6%), food waste (9.4%) and paper and card (9.2%). The remaining materials accounted for 26.8%.
The analysis, commissioned by WRAP Cymru and carried out by Resource Futures, aimed to establish an evidence base which will inform the development of Welsh policy and strategy on the circular economy and recycling including how recycling targets will be achieved in the next decade.
The objective of the work was to estimate the overall composition of MSW using waste compositional data collected for the work across Wales as well as published information on the makeup and quantities of MSW.
