UK Waste Tonnage

The total waste arisings per year for the UK in the 2019 DEFRA data reporting data from 2016</ref> was Commercial and Industrial Waste or C&I (of which around 33 million tonnes or 80% was generated in England)

• around 10 million tonnes of food and drink was waste in the food chain in 2015 (equivalent to around 25% of the 41 million tonnes of food bought)

Key Destination Information

• Recycling and Recovery : around 104 million tonnes (48.5%) was recycled or recovered in 2016 (55% of which was mineral wastes and 12% soils)
• Energy Recovery : around 7.3 million tonnes was used for energy recovery (4 times the figure in 2014 of 1.9 million tonnes) of which 76% was household and similar wastes
• Landfill : around 52 million tonnes (24.4%) of waste went to landfill in 2016
• Waste Derived Fuel Export : around 3.2 million tonnes of RDF or SRF was sent outside of the UK for energy recovery (the majority to the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden)

Performance against Key Targets

• The UK recycling rate for households was 45.7% up from 45.2% in 2016 (against an EU target of 50% by 2020)
  • England 45.2%
  • Northern Ireland 46.3%
  • Scotland 43.5%
  • Wales 57.6%
• The UK C&D recycling rate was 91% (against an EU target of 70% by 2020) equivalent to recycling around around 60 million of the 66 million tonnes classified as non-hazardous C&D wastes
• The UK BMW to Landfill was 21% of the baseline 1995 value in 2017 (the EU target is 35% of the 1995 baseline by 2020) equivalent to 7.4 million tonnes (against the target of 11.8 million tonnes, 4.4 million tonnes improvement on the target)
• The UK packaging waste either recycled or recovered was 71.4% in 2017 (the EU target is to exceed 60%) equivalent to 8 million tonnes