The CRJ Waste Report 2024

The CRJ Waste Index Report

Recycling in England at a 10 year low

In November 2023, The CRJ Waste Index Report found that:

“A consistent approach to recycling across local authorities... could help residents increase their understanding of recycling and help councils increase their recycling rates.”

Later that same month, the government announced its Simpler Recycling plan. The plan requires all councils across England to collect the same recycling, so no matter where people live or move, they’ll always know what they can and can’t recycle.1

The long-awaited plan may have arrived just in time. Figures released by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in January 2024 show that households recycled less last year than the year before.

And not only that: the percentage of waste from households that gets recycled has been dropping since 2019, and hit a low last year that we haven’t seen since 2011.2

Why is less of the waste from households getting recycled? And will the Simpler Recycling plan be enough to reverse the trend?

Has recycling reached its limit?

“We have seen household recycling rates in England increase from 11% in the 2000 to 2001 financial year to 42% in 2021 to 2022. However, in recent years household recycling rates have ‘plateaued’ at around 42% to 44%.”3

– Government response to the consultation on consistency in household and business recycling in England

Rates certainly look steady this decade compared to the beginning of the 21st century. Each year from 2001 to 2010, the percentage of household waste sent to landfill dropped, while the percentages being incinerated, burned to generate energy, while recycling increased.

Since 2011, while more household waste has been diverted away from landfills to incinerators and energy from waste plants, the percentage being recycled or composted has hardly changed. Overall, the recycling rate of household waste had continued to plateau until 2020, where the trend has started to decrease, leading us to question whether recycling within England has reached its limit.

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consistency-in-household-and-business-recycling-in-england/outcome/government-response

2 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results-202223#management-of-all-local-authority-collectedwaste-202223-table-4-and-figure-7

3 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consistency-in-household-and-business-recycling-in-england/outcome/government-response#executive-summary

Less waste: The silver lining of a slower economy?

If there’s a good news story in the Defra figures, it’s that English households are generating less waste

While a smaller percentage of the waste from households was recycled in 2023 (43.3% vs 44.1%), the amount of waste sent to landfill also decreased (1.76 million tonnes vs 2.11 million tonnes, an impressive 16.4% drop).4

A decrease in household waste could be due to:

→ The cost of living crisis:

Generally poor economic conditions mean people are buying less, doing less and trying to waste less. There’s less packaging waste because people aren’t buying as many new products. There’s less food waste because people are cooking at home more and making smaller portions (or because people are ordering in, so any waste from cooking and preparation gets collected from businesses instead of households).

→ Environmentally conscious:

People are making an effort to throw less away –whether in the recycling bin or the black wheelie bin. Messages about the waste hierarchy are getting through, and people are reusing as well as recycling.

→ Greener business goals:

Companies are making a conscious effort to meet their sustainability goals by using lighter less dense packaging, while also cutting down on the amount of packaging used, ultimately less packaging being thrown away by the end user.

→ Take back schemes:

More companies are offering to take away bulky waste like old fridges, cookers and mattresses when people buy new ones.

There could also be different factors at play in different parts of England. The Defra figures already reveal some regional stories that are quite different from the national picture.

Regional recycling strategies

To start with, the amount of household waste that councils have to deal with varies across the country, from 1.2 million tonnes in the North East to 3.9 million in the South East.5

Unsurprisingly, these two regions were also top and bottom of the table for the amount recycled or composted: 392,000 tonnes in the North East 1.8 million tonnes in the South East.

The raw tonnages will differ between regions simply because all England’s regions are different: different sizes, different population densities and demographics, different housing systems and so on.

So while the North East recycled the smallest amount of household waste last year, that amount represented a decent chunk of the region’s waste: 31.4%. The region

that recycled the smallest percentage of its household waste was London, at 29% (of a total 3.5 million tonnes).

Interestingly, London was also the region that sent the smallest percentage of waste to landfill – just 0.1% That’s because London councils incinerated the majority of waste they collected: 65.2%, a higher proportion than any other English region.

At the other end of the scale, the East sent the most waste to landfill, both in terms of raw tonnage and percentage – 22.9% (640,000 of 2.8 million tonnes) and incinerated the smallest percentage of its waste, at 31.8% (888,000 tonnes).

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Breaking through the ceiling

The recycling rate did not improve in any part of England last year. In every region, it either remained unchanged from the previous year or declined. This suggests that each individual region may have reached its maximum recycling capacity

On a more optimistic note, three regions still achieved a recycling rate above 45%: the South West (48.2%), South East (44.8%) and North West (45.2%).

And some individual councils are achieving even greater recycling rates.6

South Oxfordshire council recycled or composted a whopping 61.6% of the waste it collected last year, well above the 42 to 44% national plateau.

South Oxfordshire, a relatively wealthy area, has been collecting food and garden waste for more than a decade. That’s clearly helped the residents form a habit: over half of the material recycled there last year was organic (food and garden waste). In response to the Defra figures, South Oxfordshire council said they were committed to reducing, reusing and recycling waste.7

Four other local authorities also achieved recycling rates of 60% or higher. (Though it’s worth noting that the previous year, seven local authorities broke 60%; two of those dipped back under the threshold in last year’s figures.)

And last year, 67 different local authorities had a recycling rate above 50%.

So it is possible to break through that apparent 42 to 44% ceiling in England, at least at a regional level – when the conditions are favourable. The best performing councils tend to be in relatively affluent areas, where households generate lots of food and garden waste and the council has the resources to collect it all.

Local authority recycling rates

61.6% South Oxfordshire

17.7% Tower Hamlets

Still, the government clearly hopes that a more consistent approach to recycling could raise the bar across England, helping lower performing councils rise towards the heights South Oxfordshire has achieved. The Simpler Recycling rules focus on making things more consistent, with the aim of freeing the national recycling rate from its current plateau and sending it soaring up again.8

What is Simpler Recycling?

UK government publishes Simpler Recycling rules following 2021 consultation10 on consistency in household and business recycling

The Simpler Recycling rules

All local authorities must:

Collect the same items from households:

Dry recycling (glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, all in one collection)

Simpler Recycling in context

Simpler Recycling was announced amid a flurry of other policies related to waste and recycling.

→ August 2023: Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste

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Food waste

Garden waste (councils have to provide this as an option, but it’s up to individual households to opt in)

Collect food waste once a week

Collect residual waste (non-recyclable rubbish) at least once every two weeks

Local authorities have until March 2025 to put these collections in place for businesses, and until March 2026 for households.

Councils will still be allowed to charge for garden waste collection if they choose. This is despite an initial proposal to make these collections free for all households in England – and despite our finding that charging for these collections is related to lower recycling rates.11

9 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consistency-in-household-and-business-recycling-in-england

This policy paper sets waste reduction targets that must be met by 2050,12 and includes proposals to abolish fees for household bulky waste collections13

→ November 2023: Improved food waste reporting by large food businesses in England

The government withdrew its response to a consultation on how large businesses report food waste, and says Defra is reconsidering whether or not this reporting should be mandatory14

→ December 2023: Household waste recycling centres

The government amended the law to make it clearer what counts as construction waste and what is just household waste from doing DIY15

→ April 2025: Digital waste tracking service

From 2025, all local authorities must use digital systems to track where waste goes after being collected

10 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consistency-in-household-and-business-recycling-in-england/outcome/government-response

11 The CRJ Waste Index Report – November 2023

12 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-prevention-programme-for-england-maximising-resources-minimising-waste/maximising-resources-minimising-waste-policy-summary-table

13 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-prevention-programme-for-england-maximising-resources-minimising-waste/maximising-resources-minimising-waste-policy-summary-table#systems-and-services

14 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improved-food-waste-reporting-by-large-food-businesses-in-england

15 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/household-waste-recycling-centres-diy-waste-disposal-charges-and-booking-systems/outcome/summary-of-responses-and-government-response

What do the plans mean for local authorities?

Major change for councils as government enforces mandatory food waste collection within two years.

That could mean getting hold of new bins, new vehicles, and new storage and processing facilities.

Will making the rules the same for everyone raise everyone to the same standard? When their councils start collecting food waste, will households who couldn’t recycle food waste before suddenly start recycling as much as their neighbours in South Oxfordshire?

Of course, going from no food waste collection to weekly collections will increase the amount of food waste those councils collect. But just offering the service might not be enough to power a significant change. Food waste recycling is notoriously difficult to police; it’s just too easy to chuck food waste in with the rubbish. To make a real change, councils would need to support the new collections with information and education, among other strategies.

And two thirds of councils have already said they aren’t confident about being able to fund all the additional services they now have to provide.16

So the changes may be too ambitious for some councils to achieve; but in terms of the results they’re supposed to deliver, the changes may not be ambitious enough. That’s the position of North London Waste Authority, which claims Simpler Recycling is unlikely to increase recycling rates:17 the main thing it’s being put in place to do.

The most effective way to improve recycling rates would be to reduce how often non-recyclable rubbish is collected. But, based on the consultation responses, the Simpler Recycling rules say all councils have to keep collecting rubbish at least once a fortnight. The rules focus on giving all households in England the same opportunities to recycle, but don’t offer a lot of incentives to recycle more or waste less. And with the economic environment as it is, it’s hard to imagine households or councils volunteering to foot the bill to change things.

16 https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/new-lorries-and-bins-will-add-to-council-financial-woes/

17 https://www.nlwa.gov.uk/news/governments-simpler-recycling-unlikely-boost-recycling-rates-says-nlwa

Where will the funding come from?

Recycling isn't self-sustaining. It's valuable, but it incurs costs for councils, which need to be funded from other sources.

Back when he was Chancellor, in his October 2021 Budget, Rishi Sunak promised £300 million to fund weekly separate food waste collections.18

In contrast, Jeremy Hunt’s Spring 2024 Budget –which came hard on the heels of the Simpler Recycling announcement – doesn’t mention recycling or waste collections once.

Hunt’s Budget does include a couple of tweaks to landfill tax rates, to “ensure the tax continues to incentivise investment in more sustainable waste management infrastructure”.19 (The government seems satisfied that the landfill tax has done what it set out to do – so don’t be surprised to see a similar tax on Energy from Waste in the future.) But the Chancellor said nothing to ease councils’ concerns about the affordability of Simpler Recycling.

If funding is a worry, councils are unlikely to give up a source of it – so we would expect most councils to keep charging for garden waste collections, and we might even see some introduce new charges, even though that’s likely to lead to people recycling less.

18 https://resource.co/article/budget-2021-300-million-allocated-separate-food-waste-collections

19 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024/spring-budget-2024-html

The Simpler Recycling announcement does say the government will foot the bill for “reasonable new burdens”, including bins and boxes, vehicles, communications and change management.

The funding available will vary from council to council, based on their responses to the original consultation.

And it will be up to councils to show the government that any new investments represent value for money.

Any new storage, sorting, separating and processing machinery will need to last for a long period and do the best possible job for as long as it operates.

Even as the clock ticks down to March 2026, local authorities need to look to the long term. Decisions about how to get ready for Simpler Recycling today also need to serve their communities for years to come. And, potentially, to launch the national recycling rate off its ten-year plateau into another ten years of growth.