By Jessica Moriarty

Wiltshire Council's recycling rate has dropped to 40%, according to the latest government data, which is the lowest it has been since 2010.

It is also lower than the current figures for Somerset (56.3%), Dorset (59.1%), Gloucestershire (51.5%) and Oxfordshire (57.2%).

The data reveals that Wiltshire was at its peak amount of household waste sent to reuse, recycling and compost in 2014-2015, when it reached a high of 46.5%.

Wiltshire Council says the drop that has been seen since is partly due to changes in its recycling services, such as the charge introduced for garden waste collection in 2015.

Councillor Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Waste said: "In Wiltshire, 'composting' is limited to garden waste, whereas other councils would include food waste in their figures if collected separately.

He added: "In 2022/23, there were 80,000 households subscribed to the chargeable service and 27,000 tonnes of garden waste were collected.

"Tonnages of garden waste are impacted by weather with a particularly dry summer resulting in slow growth rates and less garden waste being collected.

"Composting contributed 21% towards our 2014/15 recycling rate and in 22/23 this contribution had fallen to 17%."

The cabinet member also noted that dry recycling rates have been affected by the "lightweighting" of packaging and changes in design.

He said: "Although we now collect more items for recycling at the kerbside compared with 2014/15, the tonnage of some of the packaging items collected has reduced, and typically high tonnages of newspapers and magazines have also declined since 2014/15."

He also suggested that the cost-of-living pressures have contributed to a change in consumer behaviour and less waste being produced overall.

He concluded: "The key difference in Wiltshire's recycling performance compared with that of Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire councils is that they have introduced separate kerbside collections of food waste, which counts towards the 'composting' element of their overall performance.

"Wiltshire Council is in discussion with Department of Environment and Rural Affairs on future plans to introduce separate collections of food waste across the county.

"Currently food waste collected in Wiltshire is part of the kerbside residual waste sent for disposal at energy from waste plants where it produces electricity."

Wiltshire Council reported it was pleased that its "Recycling – Let's Sort It" campaign has been "nationally recognised."

It won an industry specialist LARAC Celebration Award last year, and has recently been shortlisted for a 2024 LGC Award.