Wales has exceeded its national recycling, reusing and composting waste target.

So far this year it has achieved a rate of 64%, exceeding the 58% goal and up 4% on the previous year.

It also puts the country on track to hit its goals of 64% by 2020 and 70% by 2025.

As recycling rates improved, the amount of waste generated also fell –  in the first quarter of this year it dropped from 400,000 to 375,000 tonnes, compared to the previous year.

The volume of household waste generated per person also decreased, falling by 4% to 48 kilograms per person.

Only the Blaenau Gwent local authority missed the 58% target, by only 1% – this is still an improvement on the 49% achieved a year earlier.

Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary, Lesley Griffiths, said: “These latest recycling figures make for extremely satisfying reading. They reveal the waste we are generating is decreasing while the amount we recycle continues to rise.

“This is an area where we lead the way in the UK and indeed just two countries in the whole world recycle now more than we do.”