The amount thrown away by residents in Hertfordshire has increased for the first time in five years.

And the county council has had to increase the amount of waste it puts into landfill too.

The data – for 2017/18 – was reported to a meeting of the county council’s resources and performance cabinet panel on Friday (May 10).

It shows that in 2016/17 each household threw away an average of 489.68 kilograms of ‘household waste’, which includes recyclable materials.

But in 2017/18 they threw away an average of 7.62 kg more – with a household waste average of 497.3kg. Figures are not yet available for 2018/19.

And according to the data the amount of residual waste – that’s the element of waste that’s not recycled – has increased too.

The report to the panel states: “Residual waste has increased for the first time in five years but still remains significantly below the regional and national averages.

“Increases were reported by four of the 10 waste collection authorities and also at household waste recycling centres.”

Meanwhile the data also shows that the proportion of overall waste that was sent to landfill by the county council increased too – bucking another downward trend.

Whereas in 2016/17 the data shows that 11.1 per cent of waste was sent to landfill, in 2017/18 that figure increased by two per cent, to 13.1 per cent.

The report to the panel states: “Whilst the use of landfill remains low this is the first time that the trend has reversed and reflects competing pressures for availability of regional energy recovery facilities with more landfill used to cover periods of unavailability and facility ‘down-time’.”

At the meeting Labour councillor Sharon Taylor – who is also leader of Stevenage Borough Council – said it was a “concern” to see that residual waste had gone up.

‘Household waste’ is all the domestic material collected at the kerbside by district and borough councils and from the county council’s network of ‘household waste recycling centres’.

It does not include material collected from businesses or ‘industrial’ waste collected at the recycling centres, such as soil or hardcore.

Residual waste is waste that is not separated for reuse, recycling or composting.