Municipal waste management statistics show decrease in England’s landfilling

London— Defra published provisional estimates from the Department’s latest survey of municipal waste. These are the first results to based on information supplied by local authorities in England to WasteDataFlow. The figures for financial year 2004/5 show a further increase in recycling, an increase in total waste and a decrease in the amounts sent to landfill.

The total amount of municipal waste increased to an estimated 29.7 million tons in England in 2004/05 compared to 29.1 million tons in 2003/04, an increase of 2.1 percent. The average annual increase in municipal waste over the four year period from 2000/01 to 2004/05 was 1.5 percent.

In total, 33.0 percent (9.8 million tons) of municipal waste had some sort of value (recycling, composting, energy from waste and fuel manufacture) recovered from it in 2004/05, a rise from 28.0 percent (8.1 million tons) in 2003/04.

The proportion of municipal waste being recycled or composted increased from 19.0 percent in 2003/04 to 23.5 percent in 2004/05. The proportion of waste incinerated with energy recovery has remained roughly constant at around nine percent.

The proportion of municipal waste being disposed of in landfill has continued to decrease from 72 percent in 2003/04 to 67 percent in 2004/05.

The actual tonnage of municipal waste disposed of in landfill has also decreased again from 20.9 million tons in 2003/04 to 19.9 million tons in 2004/05.

In 2004/05, household sources accounted for around 86 percent of municipal waste, 25.7 million tons, which equates to around 513 kg of household waste per person per annum.

The proportion of household waste recycled (including composting) has continued to increase, rising from 17.8 percent in 2003/04 to 22.5 percent in 2004/05. This increase of 4.7 percentage points in the recycling rate is a continuation of the increased growth rate of 3.3 percentage points achieved last year.

In absolute terms the amount of household waste collected for recycling has increased by 27.6 percent, from 4.5 million tons in 2003/04 to 5.8 million tons in 2004/05.