Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has shown that Dorset Council’s recycling rate has hit a record high.
For the 2020/21 fiscal year, the latest Defra data shows that the amount of waste that Dorset Council send for recycling, reuse or composting has risen from 58.9% to 60.1%.
Out of over 330 councils nationwide, this makes the authority the eighth best performing council in England and the third top performing unitary area.
Waste Service Officers have pointed out that much of the rise is due to an increased waste capture rate, how much recyclable material is going into recycling bins, due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
The council said that the lifting of lockdown restrictions and continuing pandemic related challenges, such as the HGV driver shortage, will likely impact this year’s results.
Despite this, the authority said the fact remains that the Recycle for Dorset kerbside collection scheme continues to be a huge success for the county.
With waste and recycling playing a key part in Dorset Council’s strategy to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, the authority said it is more important than ever that everybody continues working together to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Commenting, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services, Councillor Laura Miller said:
“This is a phenomenal achievement considering the size and rurality of our county.
“The entire Waste Services team has been working hard over the last ten years, since the rollout of the kerbside Recycle for Dorset collection service, to get this far.
“I want to thank all our Waste Services employees, both frontline and office based, for everything they do, keep up the good work.
“Most of all, I want to give a big thank you to the Dorset residents who, once again, have shown themselves to be amongst the best recyclers in England.
“Your efforts to put the right stuff in the right bin not only help protect the environment but have saved millions of pounds that we can put towards other essential services.
“This success proves we have the right systems in place, so we now need to continue addressing the challenges presented by the pandemic and focus on making the service even more efficient to push us even further up the leader board.”
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