London: Defra released yesterday, its first set of estimates from the 2006/7 survey of municipal waste showing that English local authorities have broken the 30% barrier for recycling of municipal and household wastes.
In addition there have been reductions in the landfilling of municipal and household wastes, though the overall quantity of wastes has increased.
Municipal wastes
The total amount of collected municipal waste has increased to an estimated 29.1 million tonnes in England in 2006/07 compared to 28.7 million tonnes in 2005/06 (up 1.4%). However the average annual increase in municipal waste from 2001/02 to 2006/07 was only 0.2 per cent.
12.2 million tonnes (41.8%) of the total amount was recovered through recycling, composting, energy production and fuel manufacture during the year representing a rise from 10.7 million tonnes (37.2%) in 2005/06.
The combined recycling and composting rate for municipal waste increased from 27.1 per cent in 2005/06 to 30.7 per cent in 2006/07 and the proportion of waste incinerated with energy recovery increased from 10 per cent in 2005/06 to 11 per cent in 2006/07.
The proportion of municipal waste being disposed of in landfill has continued to decrease from 62% (17.9 million) in 2005/06 to 58% (16.9 million) in 2006/07.
Municipal waste comes under the control of local authorities and includes household waste and other wastes collected by a waste collection authority or its agents, such as municipal parks and gardens waste, beach cleansing waste, commercial or industrial waste, and waste resulting from the clearance of fly-tipped materials together with waste from household waste (civic amenity) sites.
Defra indicates that the amount of waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting is that which is accepted by the reprocessor and, as such it excludes any recycling rejects that occur during collection, sorting or further treatment. Waste diverted for recycling from the residual stream by further processing is included in the recycling tonnages, e.g residual waste subjected to recovery through a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility.
Household waste and recycling
Household waste includes household refuse collection rounds, other household collections such as bulky waste collections, litter collections, waste from civic amenity sites and wastes separately collected for recycling or composting through bring/drop off schemes, kerbside schemes and at civic amenity sites.
In 2006/07, household sources accounted for 89 per cent of municipal waste, 25.9 million tonnes, which equates to around 509 kg of household waste per person per annum.
Click on the image below for a chart of English household waste and recycling per capita (Chart: Defra - Crown © 2007).
Household waste increased by 1.6 per cent in 2006/7, from 25.5 million tonnes in 2005/06 to 25.9 million tonnes in 2006/07. The average annual change in total household waste over the last five years is 0.3 per cent.
The combined recycling and composting rate has continued its rise from 26.7 in 2005/06 to 30.9 per cent in 2006/07 and the 4.2% increase is the same as the growth rate achieved last year.
However in absolute terms the amount of household waste sent for recycling or composting has increased by a massive 17 per cent, from 6.8 million tonnes in 2005/06 to 8.0 million tonnes in 2006/07.
Waste Strategy 2007 for England set out targets for the management of municipal and household waste which included a target to recycle or compost at least 40 per cent of household waste by 2010. Current figures show the country to be well on the way to the target though increases are likely to become more difficult to achieve as the rate gets higher.
The amount of household waste not re-used, recycled or composted was 17.9 million tonnes, a decrease of 4.2 per cent from 2005/6. This equates to 352kg per person of collected residual household waste.
For 2006/7, there was again a 100% response rate to WasteDataFlow. The figures for financial year 2006/7 show an increase in total municipal waste, a further increase in recycling, and a decrease in the amount sent to landfill.
Further information
Figures for Regions of England do vary from the national picture and further information can be found at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/wastats/index.htm .
Further information on the Waste Strategy for England can be found on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/index.htm
Defra says that the chart showing household waste and recycling figures is also one of the supporting indicators, (indicator 19), of sustainable development as set out in the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future, launched on 7 March 2005. On 27 July 2007 an update of the national indicators was published both as a free pocket booklet Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007 and on the sustainable development website at
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/progress/index.htm .