UK Government Release Annual Residual Waste Statistics Update

The annual ‘Estimates of Residual Waste and Municipal Residual Waste in England’ statistics for the reporting year 2023-2024 has been released by DEFRA.

The document provides insight into year-on-year tonnage changes, changes in composition, and the methods in which the residual waste was treated.

In 2023, the estimated residual waste in England was 58.7 million tonnes (mt), which accounts for a decrease of 1.9% from 2022 (59.8mt), and a decrease of 8.9% from 2019 (64.4mt).

Residual waste sent to landfill also decreased by 15.3% between 2019 and 2023, whilst residual waste sent to EfW simultaneously increased by 15.2%.

The release also reiterates material-specific targets set out in the 2023 Environmental Improvement Plan. According to the plan, the total amount of residual municipal plastic waste must not exceed 42 kilograms per person by 31 January 2028.

In 2023, residual waste per person stood at 72.5kg – a decrease of approximately 2.7% compared to 2022 (74.5kg), and 3.5% lower than in 2019 (75.1kg).

The data shows a 1.9% year-on-year reduction in overall residual waste per person, falling from 1,145.3kg in 2022 to 1,017.0kg in 2023. The overall decline since 2019 is more significant, at 8.9%, when total residual waste stood at 64.4 million tonnes.

There was no average percentage change for plastic on 2019 levels, and remains at 4.2mt.

To read the government annual release, which includes key findings and the data in detail, please click here. For the LetsRecycle article and further breakdown, it’s here.

This release comes as DEFRA also shared the annual update to statistics on greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions relating to UK and England consumption on 14 May – which can be accessed here.