A councillor has insisted Birmingham will soon have “the best recycling rate in the region” despite figures showing its performance has plummeted in the past year.
Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport for the West Midlands city, said a transformation of the waste management system was expected to boost material recovery above 35 per cent.
Birmingham’s household recycling rate was 15.5 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year, down from 29 per cent 12 months earlier.
Mahmood said the latest figures were “not surprising” and highlighted the impact of industrial action as well as the “ineffectiveness of the current recycling service”.
Kerbside recycling collections have been suspended for months after bin-worker strikes began in March.
“The simple fact is we are not where we need to be on recycling, which is why we want to implement our transformation programme,” added the councillor. “We need to move to fortnightly residual waste collections, introduce food waste and expand dry mixed recycling.
“We believe this will put our performance at more than 35 per cent as per the evidence provided with a pilot we had in the city. I am sure upon implementation, we will have the best recycling rate in the region.”
Unite recently said workers had voted to extend a mandate for industrial action to March 2026.
