DEFRA has issued the first set of estimates for the 2005-06 survey of municipal wastes. This is the second year that results are based on information supplied by local authorities in England to WasteDataFlow. The department indicates that for 2005/6, there was a 100% response rate to WasteDataFlow.
The figures for financial year 2005/6 show a decrease in total municipal waste, a further increase in recycling, and a decrease in the amounts sent to landfill.
Minor revisions have also been made to estimates for 2004/5.
Municipal waste arisings
The good news is that there has been a substantial reduction in the overall quantities of municipal wastes arising with the total amount of collected municipal waste having decreased to an estimated 28.7 million tonnes in England in 2005/06 compared to 29.6 million tonnes in 2004/05, a decrease of 3.0 per cent. This makes the average annual increase in municipal waste from 2000/01 to 2005/06 only 0.5 per cent.
Value recovered
In total, 37.2 per cent (10.7 million tonnes) of municipal waste had some sort of value (recycling, composting, energy from waste and fuel manufacture) recovered from it in 2005/06, a rise from 33.0 per cent (9.8 million tonnes) in 2004/05. The proportion of waste incinerated with energy recovery has shown a small increase to 10 per cent.
Recycled and composted
The proportion of municipal waste being recycled or composted increased from 23.5 per cent in 2004/05 to 27.1 per cent in 2005/06.
Landfilled
The proportion of municipal waste being disposed of in landfill has continued to decrease from 67 per cent in 2004/05 to 62 per cent in 2005/06.
The actual tonnage of municipal waste disposed of in landfill has also decreased again from 19.8 million tonnes in 2004/05 to 17.9 million tonnes in 2005/06.
Household waste and recycling
In 2005/06, household sources accounted for 89 per cent of municipal waste, 25.5 million tonnes, which equates to around 505 kg of household waste per person per annum.
The amount of waste collected from household sources decreased by 0.8 per cent in 2005/6, from 25.7 million tonnes to 25.5 million tonnes.
The proportion of household waste recycled (including composting) has continued to increase, rising from 22.5 per cent in 2004/05 to 26.7 per cent in 2005/06. This increase in the national recycling rate of 4.2 percentage points is comparable with the growth rate of 4.7 percentage points achieved last year.
In absolute terms the amount of household waste sent for recycling or composting has increased by 17.5 per cent, from 5.8 million tonnes in 2004/05 to 6.8 million tonnes in 2005/06.
DEFRA have provided a chart (Crown © 2006) showing the changes in household waste and recycling per capita which forms part of the waste indicator of sustainable development.
Regional variations
There continues to be variations in household recycling and composting rates between different regions with regional recycling rates ranging from 21 per cent in London and the North East to over 30 per cent in the East, East Midlands and South West.
The proportion of municipal waste with some value recovered from it (recycling, composting, energy from waste and fuel manufacture) also varies by region from the West Midlands recovering value from 56 per cent of their municipal waste to the North West with a recovery rate of 30 per cent.
Revisions to 2004/5
Small revisions have been made to 2004/5 data following more responses being made to WasteDataFlow. Provisional estimates were published on 24th March 2006 based on a 50% response rate. Over the next few months a further 10% of authorities completed returns for 2004/5 giving the 60% response rate which underpins the revised 2004/5 estimates.
The impact of the revision to 2004-5 figures is small with total household waste decreasing by 30 thousand tonnes (0.1%) and total municipal waste decreasing by 115 thousand tonnes (0.4%). The national household recycling rate is unchanged at 22.5%, as is the proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill (67%).
The tables showing summary estimates, by region, from the 2005/06 WasteDataFlow survey, together with results from earlier years may be found on the Defra website.