This is what the council spends on its recycling service divided by the tonnes of household waste actually recycled — the price of recycling one tonne. It shows whether a council recycles cheaply or expensively: a low (or even negative) figure means an efficient service, sometimes one that earns more from selling materials than it costs to run, while a high figure means each recycled tonne comes dear. A negative value is genuinely possible and is good news, not an error.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of London | london | 1,788 | 1st worst of 33 |
| Westminster City Council | london | 573.89 | 2nd worst of 33 |
| Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea | london | 566.17 | 3rd worst of 33 |
| Tower Hamlets LB | london | 452.01 | 4th worst of 33 |
| Greenwich LB | london | 361.68 | 5th worst of 33 |
| Council of the Isles of Scilly | unitary | 345.84 | 1st worst of 61 |
| Hackney LB | london | 316.95 | 6th worst of 33 |
| Lewisham LB | london | 310.48 | 7th worst of 33 |
| South Holland District Council | district | 287.38 | 1st worst of 161 |
| Bromley LB | london | 258.33 | 8th worst of 33 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uttlesford District Council | district | -130.29 | 1st best of 161 |
| Eastbourne Borough Council | district | -80.88 | 2nd best of 161 |
| Rushcliffe Borough Council | district | -74.34 | 3rd best of 161 |
| Spelthorne Borough Council | district | -60.77 | 4th best of 161 |
| Guildford Borough Council | district | -54.44 | 5th best of 161 |
| Rochford District Council | district | -46.42 | 6th best of 161 |
| Enfield LB | london | -44.28 | 1st best of 33 |
| South Norfolk Council | district | -43.4 | 7th best of 161 |
| Oxford City Council | district | -31.7 | 8th best of 161 |
| Merton LB | london | -31.08 | 2nd best of 33 |
| name | recycling_cost_per_recycled_tonne_gbp |
|---|---|
| dataset | 12-wastedataflow |
| kind | constructed |
| type | numeric |
| unit | GBP/tonne recycled |
| grain | council-year |
| role | outcome |
| source | Formula: 1000 x Recycling C7 (RO5, ../01-revenue-outturn/data/RO5_LA_Data_2024-25_data_by_LA.ods, joined on ONS Code) / household_recycling_tonnes (Table_1, 2024-25) |
| period | 2024-25 only |
| missingness | Can be negative where material sales income exceeds cost. Authority-type differences (collection vs disposal responsibilities) affect comparability. |
| score_note | Sharp recycling-efficiency measure; negative values and the RO5 join make it harder to read. |
| calculated | ../calculated/recycling-cost-per-recycled-tonne-gbp.csv |
| calculated_rows | 317 |
| calculated_periods | 2024-25 |
| calculated_date | 2026-08-13 |
| peer_group | districts (n=161), unitaries (n=61), metropolitan boroughs (n=36), London boroughs (n=33), counties (n=21) — scored within each class against its median/IQR |
Net cost of each tonne of household waste diverted to recycling. It measures the efficiency of the recycling function specifically, rather than waste handling overall. Values can be negative where income from material sales exceeds the cost of the service.