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Maldon District Council is among the top 10% for waste and recycling

Published on Monday, 30th October 2023

Waste and recycling

Government figures put Maldon District Council among the top performing local authorities when it comes to overall performance in waste and recycling.

Statistics collected by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) revealed that in 2021-2022, Maldon District Council came 19th out of 239 local authorities for its overall performance in waste and recycling. The district’s recycling rates, and composting performance are well above the national average, with 56.2% recycling and composting of household waste compared with the national average of just 42.5%.

In particular, the Council’s garden waste collection service is extremely successful. There are 13,703 households in the district signed up to the service, which has made Maldon District Council the second highest performing local authority in Essex when it comes to collecting garden waste.

Facts about waste disposal in the Maldon District:

  • Household waste collections are made by Suez, which in the past year has collected 10,088 tonnes of residual waste, 6,218 tonnes of recycling, 2,272 tonnes of food waste and 4,951 of garden waste from 29,500 households.
  • The Council distributes more than three million pink recycling sacks each year, and demand keeps growing. The used sacks are exported to Germany where they are used in cement kilns, ensuring they don’t end up in landfill.
  • The green plastic bags supplied for food waste are separated after collection and used to generate energy at an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant. The remaining food waste is converted into water and fertilizer.
  • Maldon is one of five authorities trialling the collection of flexible plastics, working in partnership with Suez and FlexCollect to pilot this new scheme across several areas. This material is processed in the UK.

Cllr Richard Siddall, Leader of Maldon District Council, said: “It’s excellent news that the Council is performing so well in its waste and recycling duties and that so many residents are committed to recycling.

As a Council, one of our priorities is to work towards a greener future by creating less waste and leading by example, so I’m delighted that we are now in the top 20 local authorities nationally. I’d like to encourage all residents to make sure that they are recycling everything they can – there’s a full list of everything that be recycled in the doorstep collections here: What can be recycled | What can be recycled | Maldon District Council.”

ENDS