n the 1990s, most domestic rubbish took a one-way trip to the nearest landfill site. Today, landfill is a last resort. Most domestic waste, separated into different receptacles by householders, is collected and taken to recycling facilities. It is only after recyclers have sorted out reusable materials that the remaining waste goes to landfill.
In part, this rise in recycling is a result of the changing composition of household waste. The first change began with the Clean Air Acts of the early 1960s, removing ash and clinker from domestic waste, followed by changes in materials and lifestyles. However, the rapid increase in recycling over the past 15 years was driven by the Landfill Tax, introduced to ensure that the UK meets its obligations for reducing the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill under the 1999 EU Landfill Directive.
The UK currently generates around 270 million tonnes of waste a year, of which nearly 23 million tonnes come from our homes. This figure has stayed fairly steady over the last two decades. Before then, less than 10% of household waste was recycled; today government statistics put this at over 40%. The UK is now poised to meet its EU Waste Framework Directive target of recycling 50% of domestic waste by 2020. This would never have happened without what has been described as an ‘industrial revolution’ in waste management.
Recycling rate graph
The English ‘waste from households’ recycling rate was 44.16% in 2013. The UK is committed to a 50% target by 2020. In 2013, total waste from households was 403 kg per person, with the total waste from households 21.6 million tonnes in 2013. Local authority-managed waste to landfill had come down 62% since 2003-04 to 7.9 million tonnes in 2013-14. Local authority-managed waste to energy rose 13% to 6.2 million tonnes in 2013/14 from 2012/13: more than doubling since 2003/04 © Defra - tinyurl.com/kmonhaz
There is a business case for increased recycling as well as an environmental one. Material capable of being recycled is a domestic resource, and one whose supply is arguably more secure than that of some primary materials. In many cases, it costs less, in monetary or environmental terms, to obtain such secondary materials. For example, processing aluminium from recovered and recycled cans uses up to 95% less energy than it takes to extract the metal from bauxite ore.