Local authority municipal waste management: October to December 2023

The recycling rate is the percentage of local authority municipal waste that was reused, recycled or composted. The recycling rate has increased considerably during the last two decades (from around 5% in the late 1990s).

Main points (provisional data)

January to December 2023

• 66.1% of waste was reused/recycled/composted, a slight increase from the year ending December 2022, and is the joint highest 12 month figure on record.

October to December 2023

• 64.6% of municipal waste was reused/recycled/composted, a slight increase on the equivalent quarter in 2022, and the highest figure on record for an October to December quarter.
• 331,568 tonnes of municipal waste were generated, a slight increase on the same quarter of 2022 and a 5% decrease on the equivalent quarter in 2019, which is the most recent data prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

These figures are based on provisional data which is published quarterly, with final data for the financial year published annually.

Notes

Data on waste management are collected in order to monitor progress towards national and local targets; in particular against the requirements of the Waste Framework Directive and the Landfill Directive. In its current waste strategy ‘Beyond Recycling’ (2021), the Welsh Government set statutory targets of recycling a minimum of 64% of waste by 2019-20, and 70 per cent of waste by 2024-25. 

Data are sourced from the WasteDataFlow system, which is monitored by Natural Resources Wales. Quality information is available in accompanying quality report.