The rate of recycling in England is on the rise, but only by a year 0.7% over the past five years. On the contrary it has been revealed this week that 173 out of 350 English councils have seen a reverse in terms of their recycling rates. With councils serving over 14 million people, the statistics show that less is being recycled than in 2012.
This comes as Scotland have introduced a plastic bottle deposit scheme. The Environment Minister Therese Coffey has said regarding introducing the scheme in to England “Officials are working on this at the moment, but we have also had some experts looking at this to give us advice”. A growth in incineration of waste has left some councils little incentive to recycle. The largest falls in rates were seen in the North East of England, followed by the Midlands.