People in Wales urged to keep up mighty recycling effort this Christmas

New annual data released by Welsh Government* reveals Wales’ overall recycling rate saw a huge boost this year, increasing from 63 per cent in 2018/19 to 65 per cent in 2019/20, exceeding its target of 64 per cent.

With more than half of the country (55 per cent) now recycling more than we were last year, Welsh Government (in partnership with WRAP, the charity behind Wales Recycles) is urging householders to continue the good work over Christmas with its Be Mighty. Recycle campaign to get Wales to number one in the world for recycling.

This has been backed by ultra-athlete and chef, Matthew Pritchard.

Early estimates also reveal that lockdown had a positive effect on recycling as many of us spent more time at home.

Between April and June we recycled 19 per cent more of our waste compared to the same time last year, with food waste seeing a 21 per cent boost, creating enough energy to power 1.44 million fridges for two and a half days – the equivalent of one fridge for every home in Wales.

With Christmas around the corner, Wales Recycles’ ‘Be Mighty. Recycle.’ campaign highlights simple ways we can further boost our efforts by recycling key festive items, such as Christmas dinner food waste including turkey bones and vegetable peelings, mince pie cases and cardboard packaging, which can make a real difference to helping the environment and tackling climate change.

In Wales, most local authorities send their food waste to a special processing facility where it is turned into green energy. Just one caddy full of food waste producing enough electricity to power a TV for two hours or a fridge for 18 hours.

Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, said: “We should be really proud of our mighty effort this year on recycling, throughout what has been a challenging year for us all. We have all played our part in making this happen, so let’s keep up the good work.

“We’ve come a long way since we first started recycling more than 20 years ago, but while we should celebrate our efforts to date, there are quick wins we can all achieve that will help us get to number one.

“Almost half of us still throw away things in our general waste that could have been recycled, so let’s make a special effort this Christmas to recycle our food waste and other festive items which we might not immediately think we can recycle such as mince pie cases and help tackle climate change.”

Celebrity chef, author and ultra-athlete Matthew Pritchard is supporting Wales’ drive to become world leaders by sharing his top tips on how to focus on food waste this Christmas.

Matthew said: “Christmas is the time we all create more waste and that’s especially true when it comes to food. That’s why I’m getting behind this mighty mission to show how easy it is to use your food waste caddy and why it’s so important.

“If, like me, you’re the lucky person who is preparing your Christmas dinner, get those vegetable peelings and sprout stalks, bones and turkey trimmings into the food waste caddy.

“This way they’re not wasted, but instead recycled and converted into green energy which is used to power our homes. The same goes for fruit peelings, eggshells, nutshells, coffee grounds, tea bags and plate scrapings. All this food waste is a valuable resource so don’t waste it!

Carl Nichols, Head of WRAP Cymru, added: “Recycling isn’t just about cutting down on waste, it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and it importantly provides resources to make new materials.

“One quarter of what we throw away is food waste so over Christmas there’s a big opportunity to make a real difference by putting all that unavoidable food waste into our food waste caddy instead of the general waste.

“We know that the vast majority of people in Wales want to be better at recycling and so if we can all make a mighty effort to recycle our food waste this Christmas, we will be well on our way to becoming the best recycling nation in the world.”