Maltese households generate a little over two kilos of waste a day on average; 4.2 per cent less than a decade ago.

The amount of collected household waste reaches a peak on Mondays, gradually decreasing during the rest of the week, according to the Household Waste Composition Survey.

More than half the 2.17 kilos of waste dumped by households every day consists of food and 38 per cent is recyclable material, including plastic, paper and cardboard.

The amount of recyclable material increased by more than eight per cent when compared to 2002.

The survey, conducted between July last year and April this year, revealed that every person generates an average of 0.68 kilos of waste daily, practically unchanged since the last survey was held 10 years ago.

A comparison of the 2002 and 2011/2012 studies shows that, while plastic and glass waste increased by two per cent and 1.5 per cent, food remains declined by 7.5 percentage points to 52.1 per cent of household waste and the amount of hazardous waste produced by households dropped by more than two per cent.