At a cabinet meeting yesterday (June 2), a report noted that the percentage of waste recycled or composted was 43.25 per cent in the last quarter of 2024/25, below the 52 per cent target.
Cllr Tim Williams, the council’s portfolio holder for neighbourhood services, said: “We did notice these figures coming in a little bit lower than we expected, and we were disappointed at that.
“We have picked up conversations with officers about it, I’ve even picked up a conversation with a Herts County Council waste manager as well, and we do have a further meeting scheduled this month to go into this in more depth.”
He suggested a “combination of factors” had led to the figures being below expectations, including the “minimal” amount of garden waste created during the quarter.
Cllr Williams added: “Still far too much of our food waste is going into the residual waste stream, and as a council and all of us, we need to encourage residents to use the weekly food waste collection.
“I know … a further rollout of the food waste collection to flats will be occurring.
The mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor, said the expansion of the collection to flats over the next year would “hopefully” raise recycling and composting rates, but admitted the current figure is “slightly below where we’d want it to be”.
Peter Taylor. (Image: Watford Borough Council)
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He said: “I know that when the league tables are produced for councils with the highest percentage of recycling , those councils that have many residents living in large houses with large gardens are at a little bit of an advantage.
“But we are still in the top 25 per cent of councils when it comes to recycling, which, given our demographic, is actually really impressive.”
Cllr Williams said recycling rates in Watford are higher than those in areas including Harrow, Luton and Stevenage.
Noting progress on another council service, Mr Taylor said it was “positive” that the council had hired three more parking enforcement officers. In the final quarter of 2024/25, 11,062 parking fines were issued compared with 8,471 in the previous quarter.