Defra releases municipal waste survey statistics for England

Defra has published the second provisional set of estimates from the Department’s 2007/2008 survey of municipal waste in England.

The provisional results incorporate the second quarter of the financial year and are based on information sup- plied by local authorities to WasteDataFlow.

The data are provisional as not all returns have completed full validation and returns to WasteDataFlow can be revised by local authorities during the scheme year. Final figures will be released in November 2008.

To minimize the effects of seasonal fluctuations, comparisons are made between the year April 2006 to March 2007 and the year October 2006 to September 2007, i.e., encompassing the provisional results for the quarter July to September 2007.

Total municipal waste changed little in the year ended September 2007, decreasing from 29.1 million tons to 29.0 million tons, or 0.3%. A similar small decrease in total household waste was observed, from 25.8 to 25.7 million tons. Less waste was sent to landfill, decreasing from 16.9 to 16.1 million tons.

There was an increase in the household recycling rate, from the average rate of 30.9% between April 2006 and March 2007 to 33.2% between October 2006 and September 2007. The average residual household waste per head decreased from 353 kg per head between April 2006 and March 2007 to 340 kg per head between October 2006 and September 2007.