The report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), published this month, also said the organisation had saved an estimated one million tonnes of carbon emissions since it was founded.
The organisation’s annual meeting heard new infrastructure supported by WRAP is expected to recycle more than 86million tonnes over their lifetime – saving another 12.5million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Speaking at the meeting, WRAP chief executive Dr Liz Goodwin said: “Both waste prevention and recycling have a role to play in addressing climate change.
“The figures produced as a result of our work to understand the environmental benefits of recycling clearly show that the current UK recycling activity is the same as taking five million cars off the road.”
She added: “I want the public and businesses to make the connection between actions they can take to reduce and recycle and the contribution this makes to resource efficiency and climate change.
“WRAP has an important role in this – working with all parts of the resource efficiency loop to make it as easy, efficient and economically sustainable as possible for everyone to prevent waste and to recycle more.”
In 2006-07, WRAP secured an agreement from the Olympic Delivery Authority that a fifth of the content of construction material in venues for London 2012 must be reused or recycled, and signed up nine new organisations to reduce waste.
Since it was founded in 2000, it has also been credited with almost doubling the annual turnover in the recycling sector to £1.3billion, and increasing the number of households recycling and composting.
A total of 24 major retailers and brands are now working with WRAP to reduce waste by 160,000 tonnes by 2008.
Kate Martin