Yes, agreed, and without knowing more about how the recycling statistics were produced, I am sceptical about the data. What do the statistics actually show?

Is the total volume of non-recycled waste for every borough compared with the total volume of recycled waste? How would that be quantified? Would it be weighed? Or do they count the number of full compactor trucks per household? Over what period is/was the data gathered?

If the total waste is not being weighed or measured in some way, then are the statistics based on sampling? A 100 households chosen in each borough? Over what period? Were the selected households typical, and a reasonable comparison with the samples selected in other boroughs? Does each borough do the research or is it done by central government?

It seems crucial to understand the methodology. Once the methodology is understood it would then be important to check the calculations. It would not be the first time that policy and planning has been based on incorrect calculations - one number in the wrong column of a spreadsheet could potentially affect everyone's waste collection for no reason at all!