In the financial year ended March 31, 2020, local authorities in England collected approximately 23 million metric tons of household waste. This amounted to 392 kilograms of household waste collected per capita. Volumes of collected waste have decreased slightly since the beginning of the century, with the total LA collected household waste in England totaling almost 26 million metric tons in 2003.

Recycling in England

Despite such large quantities of household waste being collected each year, the amount that is recycled has seen little progress in recent years. In 2010/11, the recycling rate of household waste in England was 42 percent, but by 2020 it had only increased to 45.5 percent. The most recycled household waste materials are paper and cardboard, and glass. Currently, only 8.5 percent of plastic waste is recycled, despite the growing concern over its environmental impact.

One of the main issues with recycling in England is that local authority waste management varies greatly from region to region, with some recycling far more than others. Not all local authorities collect the same materials either. For example, plastic bottle collection in England is high amongst all local authorities, but only a small amount collect materials such as plastic film. Regional recycling rates in England are highest in the South West and East of England, and the lowest in the North East and London, which had recycling rates of 35.1 and 33.4 percent in 2020, respectively. The local authority with the highest recycling rate that year was Three Rivers District council in the East of England, which recycled 64.1 percent of household waste.

Waste disposal

With less than 50 percent of household waste recycled in England, the rest is disposed of in other ways such as landfilling and incineration. In 2019/20, local authorities collected 2.17 million metric tons of waste for landfill disposal. This was a significant reduction compared to just 10 years prior when more than 12 million metric tons of waste was landfilled. In comparison, the volume of waste collected for incineration has increased massively in recent years, specifically for waste-to-energy. In the 2019/20 financial year, more than 11 million metric tons of waste was collected by local authorities for the purpose of waste to energy incineration, which accounted for almost 50 percent of total LA collected waste collected that year.

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