Which English Councils are Best and Worst at Recycling? Top 10 and Bottom 10 Revealed

The government is now backing a goal of recycling 65% of waste by 2035, matching aggressive EU targets. With the average recycling rate in England sitting at 42.3% across the country, there's quite a way to go on a national level. A few councils stand out for having the best recycling rates, but only one council is already within 2 percentage points of the 65% target: Three Rivers District Council.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, England households produced 21.8 million tonnes of waste in 2021/22, 9 million tonnes of which was sent for recycling. Which councils are doing the best and the worse across England to recycling this staggering amount of waste?

Table of Contents

• Best Councils in England for Recycling
• Worst Councils in England for Recycling
• Data for Each Council

Best Recycling Rates in England

The Three Rivers District Council topped the charts as the best local authority for recycling yet again, achieving the top spot out of more than 300 local authority areas with a recycling rate of 63.5%. As a result they were awarded the trophy for the best council in England for recycling for 2021/22. Three Rivers was also #1 in 2019/20 and #3 in 2020/21.

The next best council for household recycling in 2021/22 was South Oxfordshire District Council with a household recycling rate of 62.7%, followed by St Albans City and District Council (which was #1 in 2020/21) with a household recycling rate of 62.4%.

Vale of White Horse, St Albans, Surrey Heath, Derbyshire Dales, Rochford, North Somerset, Stratford-on-Avon, East Devon and South Northamptonshire round out the top 12, all with recycling rates of at least 59.9%.

Worst Recycling Rates in England

Barrow-in-Furness (North West) and Tower Hamlet (London) have the worst household recycling rates in the country, a mere 17.7% and 19.7%, respectively. Overall, the 12 worst local authorities for recycling in England all recycle 25.5% or less of household waste—in fact, the worst councils recycle at less than half the rate of the best 12 councils.

What's the worst region? London. In fact, 5 of the 12 worst councils in England for household recycling fall within London. Overall, London only recycles 34.4% of household waste.

FAQs

Data

Here is the data used in this study to determine the best and worst councils for recycling in England, which we sourced from www.gov.uk. The list is sorted alphabetically so you can find your local area and see how it ranks and compares to the rest of England. Note, we have included collection and council data but excluded disposal data, to avoid double counting.