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Recycling has decreased 1.4 percentage points in the waste authority for Devon

Strictly embargoed 0:00 GMT, Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Back in 2015 Devon County Council recycled 53.7% of its waste, landfilled 31.4%, and incinerated 13.2%.

By 2023 incineration had increased by 29.7 percentage points to 42.9%.

Recycling decreased over the same period by 1.4 percentage points to 52.4%. In 2023 3.4% of waste was landfilled.

In Devon, there are three separate contracts to deal with the county's waste. The South West Devon Waste Partnership (SWDWP) is a joint venture between Plymouth City Council, Devon County Council and Torbay Council. It has a 25-year residual waste contract with MVV Environment Devonport Ltd, which commenced in 2014. The overall estimated worth of the contract is £436million.

The county also has a contract to dispose of waste from Exeter and the surrounding area at the Exeter Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) – this is a contract with Viridor Exeter Waste Services Ltd. It has an operational term of 30 years from 2014 onwards. The overall estimated worth of the contract is circa £240million.

There is a third contract covering North Devon and Torridge with Suez Recycling and Recovery Limited. This contract for provision of a transfer station and disposal of residual waste runs from 2019 to 2029. Its estimated value is £55million.

Devon's response to our FOI request with more details on their arrangements can be read in full here.

Notes:

  1. Figures do not always add up to 100% as there is a fourth ‘other’ category.
  2. In some cases figures total over 100% as it may include waste from the previous year.
  3. Rounding may also lead to some percentage changes being slightly higher or lower than the difference between the two figures: in this situation please check the full spreadsheet for more detailed figures.
  4. Some annual returns in Scotland are incomplete comparing 2014 and 2022. This is because, at some authorities, data on incineration was not collected back in 2014. Other authorities have also not submitted an annual return for 2022 in the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) data.

Explore authorities in the South West

The interactive table below shows how waste has been dealt with in authorities in the region between 2014/15 and 2022/23.

Visualised: how waste processing changed between 2014/15 and 2022/23