More of England's municipal waste is being recycled according to a report by DEFRA. The report found that England recycled 36.3 per cent of the 7.2 million tonnes of municipal waste it produced between July and September 2008.
According to the latest statistics from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the total amount of rubbish was less than the 7.5 million tonnes generated in the same three months of 2007.
The government department reported a two percent improvement in England's recycling rate, based on provisional data provided by local authorities to its WasteDataFlow database.
It also found that household recycling had increased by 1.8 percent; from 34.5 percent in the 2007-08 financial year to 36.3 percent in the year ending September 2008.
A spokesperson from Defra said: "These latest statistics show that all the good work by local authorities and the public to continue recycling is paying off.
"We continue to work to bring down the amount of waste sent to landfill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
The representative added that the results suggest England's local authorities remain on course to meet the European Union's 2010 landfill target, which aims to reduce the negative environmental effects of burying waste.
