London Recycling Scorecard 2025

Government data released today 27 March [1] shows London’s poor recycling rate has stagnated for 10 years – and there are wide variations in borough recycling rates

Campaigners have demanded action on London’s ‘embarrassingly low’ recycling record as new data shows no progress in improving London’s poor recycling rate. CPRE London has today published the London Boroughs Recycling Scorecard 2025 showing the recycling rates for all London boroughs and calling for action to lift London’s low recycling rate. Headline data results are also set out below.[2]

Alice Roberts of CPRE London said: “London languishes near the bottom of the English regions with just 33% of waste sent for recycling, compared to top-of-the-table region, the South West, at 49%. We’ve seen no improvement for ten years. This isn’t just an environmental disaster, it’s a huge waste of taxpayers’ money. It’s embarrassing and it’s time for action.

“Most Londoners have comprehensive recycling services, including food waste collections. These need to be extended to all households which don’t currently have them. But the key is we all need to use our recycling services properly. Better communications are needed to make sure everyone knows what they’re required to do, and this needs to be backed up with enforcement action, such as issuing fines, for persistent non-recyclers. Evidence shows communications and enforcement are vital to lifting recycling rates.”

The campaigners want boroughs to set a target of 50% of household waste sent for recycling or composting by 2030 and an interim target of 40% by 2026. Boroughs which already have high recycling rates should set a target of 60% and lead the way to achieving it, they say.

ENDS

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results

[2] HEADLINES

London

• London’s recycling rate (household waste sent for recycling, composting or re-use) has continued to stagnate, having been at around 33% for the last 10 years and 32.7% for the last three years.
• London’s household waste recycling rate of 32.7% (the proportion of waste sent for recycling or composting) is the second lowest in the country after the North East at 31.4%. The region with the highest household waste recycling rate in 2023/24 was the South West at 48.9%.

Boroughs

• Bromley had the highest total (dry + green) recycling rate, and with a score of 51% has become the first borough ever to send more than half of its waste for recycling.
• Tower Hamlets had the lowest rate at 16% and so sent the highest proportion of waste for disposal.
• After Bromley, the next best performing boroughs were Ealing, Bexley, Kingston and Sutton which all had recycling rates of over 40%.
• After Tower Hamlets, the boroughs with the lowest recycling rates were Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Wandsworth and Hackney.
• Thirteen boroughs had a dry recycling rate (paper, plastic, metal) of less than 20%.
• Greenwich and Lewisham both had increases in recycling rates of more than three percentage points compared with last year, while Croydon, Islington, Bexley and Bromley all had increases of more than two percentage points.
• Five boroughs saw a decrease in recycling rates of at least two percentage points, with Brent and Merton showing the biggest drop followed by City of London, Kingston, Sutton and Westminster
• Greenwich climbed from 21^st to 13^th in the rank order of boroughs while Brent dropped from 13^th to 24^th and City of London from 20^th to 27^th.
• On a positive note, Greenwich and Lewisham were among the 20 local authorities in England with the largest increase in recycling rate over the previous year, see Annex Table 1.
• However, there are no London boroughs in the top 20 local authorities with the highest recycling rates in England, see Annex Table 2.