New figures published today suggest that Government is off-track to meet its waste reduction targets.
A report entitled ‘Estimates of Residual Waste (excluding Major Mineral Wastes) and Municipal Residual Waste in England’ suggests that residual waste levels fell from 576.8kg per person to 558.8kg per person from between 2021 and 2022. The statistics also showed that the amount of residual waste sent to landfill between 2021 and 2022 decreased 6.7% from 243.0 kilograms per person to 226.8 kilograms per person, or from 13.7 million tonnes to 13.0 million tonnes (a decrease of 5.8%).
Reacting to the results, Executive Director of the Environmental Services Association, Jacob Hayler, said: “Today’s rubbish statistics confirm that UK Government is off-track to meet its target of near halving the amount of general waste produced per person by 2042 and that it stands little chance of hitting an interim goal to reduce waste by 29% in or before 2028.
Although a 3% year-on-year decrease in waste volumes per person between 2021 and 2022 sounds positive, these figures include commercial waste volumes which have likely naturally decreased in line with a weak economy. The decrease in tonnage per person from local authorities only is much more modest over the same period at less than a percentage point. It is, however, positive to see residual waste exports declining significantly, which is testament to our sector’s major investment in domestic waste treatment facilities.
Today’s figures are unsurprising given the significant delays to Government’s flagship recycling reforms, which have yet to be implemented despite being announced in 2018. Without major policy reform, the UK will not move the needle on flat-lining recycling rates, which have been static for a decade now. To stand a chance of hitting its targets, Government must focus on delivering long-awaited packaging recycling reforms and should increase the plastic packaging tax to stimulate more market demand for recycled material. Longer term, statutory recycling targets for local authorities in England, which has already been successfully rolled out in Wales, will be key to meeting national recycling and waste reduction goals.”
