The UK continues to strengthen its waste management with more English households implementing waste recycling activities. Waste recycling rate jumped 0.3% from 2016's result, reaching 45.2% in 2017, according to the latest data from the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ (Defra UK), published in the report, “Statistics on Waste Managed by Local Authorities in England in 2017/18.”

1. England's Waste
Recycling Rate
Continues its Upward
Trend, Government
Report Says
LKM Recycling

2. The UK continues to strengthen its waste management with more English households implementing
waste recycling activities. Waste recycling rate jumped 0.3% from 2016's result, reaching 45.2% in
2017, according to the latest data from the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’
(Defra UK), published in the report, “Statistics on Waste Managed by Local Authorities in England in
2017/18.”
Dry recycling volumes in the region fell by 2.1%, from 6.0 million tonnes in 2016 to just 5.9 million
tonnes in 2017. “Recycling and recovery” was also the most prominent final waste treatment method
in the country, the report said. This is in line with the 1.5% decrease in total household waste in the
region -- from 22.8 million tonnes in 2016 to only 22.4 million tonnes in 2017.

3. Waste Management Wins
A March 2019 report from Defra UK also showed that the biodegradable municipal waste (BMW)
that
the country dispatched to landfills decreased from 7.8 million tonnes in 2016 to an estimated 7.4
million
tonnes in 2017. The report authors noted that the UK currently has a target set by the European
Union, to restrict the BMW sent to landfills to 35% of the 1995 baseline by 2020. The report showed
that the BMW is well below this target, at 21% of the baseline in 2017.

4. Hitting Targets with Package Recycling
The report also stated that over 70.2% of packaging waste in the UK was either recycled or
recovered in
the same year. It was above the 60% target set by the EU. Over 7.4 million tonnes of packaging
waste was recycled in 2017. And a further 0.7 million tonnes was recovered to use for energy.
These are small, but significant steps in decreasing waste in England – as it was also noted that the
UK
created a total of 222.9 million tonnes of waste in 2016. England contributed to 85% of this total.
However, the country is doing quite well in the recycling race, hitting well beyond its targets so far.
With
the pace that UK’s waste management is taking, a sustainable future may be attainable after all.

5. Sources:
https://www.lkm.org.uk
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7
63191/LACW_mgt_annual_Stats_Notice_Dec_2018.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7
84263/UK_Statistics_on_Waste_statistical_notice_March_2019_rev_FINAL.pdf