Comparing Domestic and Non Domestic Recycling Rates

I am guessing that quite a number of you have some idea/sense or what our general non domestic recycling rates have been and probably fewer are aware of our domestic recycling rate. These are broad national level figures but the give a good indication of progress or lack off.

Domestic waste is basically post consumer, what we all produce after carting back from the supermarket or from the neighbour grocery store and using the materials or products in our lives as a consumption item, household use including clothes, detergents etc

Non domestic waste is then everything that is pre-consumer, produce and used locally or in a supply chain for export.

In summary, non domestic waste is much bigger than domestic waste.

Taking the last 4 years:
– domestic waste is on average 27.3% of our total waste generated.
– the average recycling rate for domestic wastes is just 12.5% versus an average of 54% for the non domestic sector.

This is quite appalling. Imagine if this was a school test. 54% would be “could do much better if he tries harder” but 12.5% would be in red. Fail. And thats an average and we know some major materials such as plastics and food wastes are in single digits. What would your parents have said.?

This was written in response to a simple question from a good friend.

Addendum:
In case some are still wondering what this is about, over a period of 4 years, (2020-2023), our average 4 year domestic recycling rate of 27.3% is dragging down our 4 year average non domestic recycling rate to 54%.

So our domestic waste recycling efforts really need to buck up.
– more and better ideas, incentives and disincentives
– really support NGOs and Social Enterprises in their lonely journeys
– support existing recycling companies through costs reduction incentives
– educate and develop missing skills hard and soft learning skills in waste management
– less talking and more doing (less green washing)
– ??… probably a lot more comments from crowd sourcing