Recycling rate has been steadily dropping over five years – discounting green waste

The document examines all aspects of Guernsey waste, and showed that the amount of household waste recycled, reused and composted was the lowest recorded since current collection and charging arrangements were introduced.

While green waste figures help buoy the recycling rate, without that aspect, there has been a steady drop in recycling, from 68% in 2019 to 61% last year.

Last year the amount of household waste not reused, recycled or composted was 7,602 tonnes, compared with 6,092 in 2019.

However the amount of black bag waste per person has stayed relatively stable, excluding Covid years. In 2019 it was 64kg per person, compared to 65kg last year.

And the amount of waste per person collected at the Household Waste and Recycling Centre – including some black bag waste but also bulkier household goods – has increased three-fold, from 16kg to 46kg per person.

Guernsey Waste business support manager Ben Henry said the figures told the story of increasing household waste.

‘At the HWRC we seeing a lot of heavy items like wood, so that tips the scales up more than say polystyrene,’ he said.

On black bags, he said people might only be throwing out a little more each, but that made a big difference to the overall island figure.

The amount of dry recyclables has dropped to its lowest level in at least five years.

There were 8,805 tonnes of dry recyclables handled last year, down from 9,306 the year before, and 9,971 in 2021.

A major component in this has been the drop in household paper and cardboard recycling, from 3,127 in 2022 to 2,752 in 2023. This follows a steady decline over the last five years, when it was 3,519 in 2019.

Blue bag waste – such as cartons and tins – has also dropped slightly, from 1,296 in 2022 to 1,257 tonnes last year, but it follows on from a steady decline over the last four years. In 2020 1,548 tonnes of plastic packaging, cartons and tins were recycled.

Guernsey’s waste and recycling are measured by weight, rather than volume.

Mr Henry said the drop in dry recyclables had several factors.

‘There are people who are reducing what they are buying,’ he said. People are buying loose fruit and veg, rather than packaged, and manufacturers are using different, less and lighter packaging too.

‘The lightening of items is the biggest contributor,’ he said. Plastic bottles are lighter and so the recycling bags are too.

With green waste included, Guernsey did manage to hit its 70% recycling rate target in 2019, 2020 and 2021, but it has failed to achieve this in 2022 and last year.

Mr Henry was hopeful Guernsey could get back up to the mark.

‘We think it is about a waste reduction message and try and encourage people to buy less,’ he said.

He added that reuse was also important, with islanders encouraged to use services like the reuse hub at the HWRC and buying from charity shops.

n There are proposals to hold another waste composition survey to better understand local waste habits. A survey was last held in 2022.