Surrey achieves 50% recycling rate 10 years ahead of schedule

Councils in England are required to recycle at least half their household waste by 2020, which means Surrey is nine years ahead of time.

Efforts that helped to increase recycling within the county included improving community recycling centres and extending the opening hours, increasing the variety of waste that can be recycled and working with district and borough councils to collect food waste separately.

The council’s cabinet member for environment, Dr Lynne Hack, said: “Achieving a 50% recycling rate required a lot of hard work by residents and Surrey councils, so we should all be proud of this achievement.”

The local authority is now focused on reaching a 70% household waste recycling rate by 2014. It aims to achieve this by working to identify more materials that can be recycled and educating people about the benefits of recycling.

Maxine Perella