People in Exeter are among the best in the country for producing the least amount of rubbish, the City Council has revealed.
The city was ranked 8th in England for its efforts in reducing waste (2024/25), collecting only 257kg of household waste per person during the last year (2025/26). Exeter has already achieved and exceeded Devon’s 2030 target of 400kg per person.
The latest figures for 2025/26 show that Exeter is the leading authority in Devon when it comes to the waste hierarchy of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’. The figures come from the Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee.
Exeter also improved its recycling rate from 29% to 32.6% - the only authority across the county to show an improvement – following the successful roll-out of food waste across the whole of the city.
Cllr Ruth Williams, Deputy Leader and Lead Councillor for Support Services and City Management, said the impact of enabling all households to have a food waste collection in Exeter was likely to be felt in next year’s figures as well.
“Not only has our recycling rate gone up by 3.6 per cent because of the food waste rollout – a figure that we expect to see increasing next year, as more and more households get used to recycling their food waste – Exeter continues to fly the flag for Devon and the West Country when it comes to the waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle.
“The figures are clear, people in Exeter produce less rubbish than most people in England, and that’s something to be proud of!”
Cllr Williams said the Council was working hard to improve its recycling rate and was investing £12 million in a new, improved materials reclamation facility that could handle more recyclables.
“We know that people in Exeter are proud to do their bit for the environment, recycling as much as they possibly can, but they also seem to get the waste hierarchy and where possible don’t generate much waste in the first place, which is really good to see.
“We’re also very much an urban authority, with many properties having small or no gardens and subsequently not generating as much garden waste as some of the other more rural authorities across the county, which can contribute up to 18 per cent to their recycling performance.
“A lot of people in the city are only just getting used to their food waste collections, so I think that we will see a further rise in Exeter’s recycling rate as we move forward,” she added.
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