South and Vale are among top recyclers in the country….again

Residents in southern Oxfordshire are among the top recyclers in the country yet again!

Yesterday the government published the figures showing how much waste is recycled across the country. South Oxfordshire District had the second highest recycling rate in England with 64 per cent of its waste being recycled.

Vale of White Horse district came joint third with 63.3 per cent of its waste being recycled. This puts the two districts way above the national recycling rate of 45.5 per cent and they are also two of only 11 local authorities in the country with a recycling rate above 60 per cent. Both districts have consistently been in the top ten in the past five years.

As the figures cover the period from the beginning of April 2019 to the end of March 2020, they only include the very first week of the national lockdown last year. So the impact of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns on the collection of household waste in the districts will not be revealed until next year’s figures.

Cllr Catherine Webber, cabinet member for Climate Emergency and Environment for Vale of White Horse District Council said: “We are very pleased with these figures! They show that our residents have responded well to our promotion of recycling through social media and direct mail plus the provision of a service designed to help make recycling an easy option. I would like to thank them and our contractor for all their hard work to reach these good figures.”

Cllr David Rouane, cabinet member for Housing and Environment for South Oxfordshire District Council said: “At this time, we would like to encourage residents to keep up their good work and reduce and recycle as much material as possible. This includes the extra packaging that comes with increased online shopping. I would also like to thank our contractors who have worked so hard in difficult circumstances this past year. And once again we thank the residents for their efforts to recycle as much as they have and we hope we can improve on this figure next year.”

Notes to editors

More information is available https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results