The devolution of waste policy in 1999 has been a great success story for Wales. The municipal waste recycling rate was only 5% in 1999, one of the lowest rates in the European Union. The Welsh government’s duty to promote sustainable development acted as the catalyst to drive a huge improvement in recycling. Wales’ recycling rate now stands at 63% according to recently published provisional figures for 2016. In comparison, recycling rates across the rest of the UK have been flagging for years and fell for the first time in 2015 - driven by a 0.9 percentage point drop in England, from 44.8% in 2014 to 43.9% in 2015. Despite already being a recycling trailblazer, Wales is consulting on a further increase to its recycling target, providing a lesson in waste management that can be learned across the rest of the UK.
