Municipal Solid Waste

Municipal Solid Waste – or MSW – is a term more extensively used in the EU and includes Household Waste and any other wastes collected by a Waste Collection Authority, or its agents, such as Municipal Parks and Gardens Waste, Beach Cleansing Waste, Commercial Waste and waste resulting from the clearance of Fly-tipped Materials. It can also be used to describe Commercial Wastes that are broadly similar in nature to household wastes as outlined in the definition below.

Municipal Waste is defined within Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste as 'waste from households, as well as other wastes which, because of its nature or composition, is similar to waste to waste from household'.

The definition of municipal waste in the UK changed in 2010 following negotiations with the EU Commission and the waste community to remove the ambiguity around this term and is now termed ‘Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste’ or ‘Local Authority Collected Waste’.

However, further ambiguity may arise in the future with the introduction of Non-Household Municipal Waste or NHM in the most recent Government consultation on Consistency in Recycling Collections in England.