Official Statistics

Estimates of residual waste in England: Methodology

Updated 12 June 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

The estimates of residual waste in the Estimates of Residual Waste and Municipal Residual Waste in England statistics release for the calendar year 2019 and onwards use a treatment-based definition of residual waste that includes waste originating in England that is:

• sent to landfill in the United Kingdom
• put through incineration in the United Kingdom
• used in energy recovery in the United Kingdom
• sent outside the United Kingdom for energy recovery

This means that only residual waste originating in England, regardless of where it is treated, is included in the estimates in this release, whereas waste treated in England that originated elsewhere is excluded.

Not all residual waste that is treated through one of the above methods is included in the scope of the measures in this release:

1. The residual waste estimates largely exclude waste from marine dredging activities and other mineral wastes from mining activities.
2. Tonnages of waste defined as major mineral wastes are excluded from the residual waste excluding major mineral wastes measure.
3. Only tonnages of waste defined as municipal waste are included in the municipal residual waste measure.

Tonnages of waste within the scope of the measures and for each of the above treatment methods are obtained using Environment Agency regulatory data on waste treatment, including , incinerator monitoring reports, and . Further details about the usage of these datasets in determining the estimates of each measure of residual waste are described below.

Scope of residual waste measures in this release

As stated in the introduction, the second residual waste measure included in the Estimates of Residual Waste and Municipal Residual Waste in England statistics release excludes waste defined as major mineral wastes (MMW). MMW are the predominant and largely inert wastes typically arising from the construction and demolition sector, such as concrete, bricks and sand, as well as soils and other mineral wastes from excavation and mining activities.

The third measure of residual waste included in this release only includes residual waste defined as municipal waste. For the purpose of this measure, municipal waste includes both household waste and waste from other sources which is similar in nature and composition to household waste, including household-like waste generated by businesses.

MMW and municipal waste are defined in the data using sets of (LoW) categorisation codes. This classification of waste is used by permitted waste sites to report on tonnages of waste received and removed. All waste produced has a corresponding LoW code. LoW codes can be further aggregated into larger chapters and sub-chapters that are mainly categorised by material or source.

MMW comprise construction and demolition wastes, mineral wastes, soils, and dredging spoils, and are listed in the 바카라 사이트˜Major mineral wastes codes바카라 사이트™ sheet of the accompanying Estimates of residual waste in England data set. The definition of MMW also includes the waste code 19 12 09, which are minerals separated via mechanical treatment of waste.

Municipal waste is defined in this release using a set of LoW codes as listed in the 바카라 사이트˜Municipal wastes codes바카라 사이트™ sheet of the accompanying Estimates of residual waste in England data set. Municipal waste categorised with the waste code 19 12 12, which is wastes from the mechanical treatment of waste, is reduced in tonnage by 20% to account for the non-municipal waste component. This assumption is consistent with the methodology for estimates of commercial and industrial waste in UK Statistics on Waste.

Further tonnages of residual waste are excluded from the measures of residual waste included in this release. These tonnages are identified using the waste codes listed in the 바카라 사이트˜Doubly counted waste codes바카라 사이트™ sheet of the accompanying Estimates of residual waste in England data set and are excluded to remove double counting. These codes comprise tonnages of wastes from incineration or pyrolysis of waste and landfill leachate. These tonnages would therefore have already been captured in the datasets through other waste codes prior to the waste being treated and so are excluded to avoid double counting tonnages of waste.

Determining estimates of residual waste

Each measure of residual waste in the Estimates of Residual Waste and Municipal Residual Waste in England statistics release includes reported tonnages of waste originating in England that are sent to landfill or put through incineration in England or are sent to landfill or put through incineration in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom. Tonnages of residual waste reported as sent to landfill or put through incineration in England but originated in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom are not included in each measure.

Waste Data Interrogator is used to obtain reported tonnages of waste sent to permitted landfill sites in England as well as reported tonnages of waste originating in England that are sent to permitted landfill sites in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom. Reported tonnages of waste received at permitted landfill sites in England that originated from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom are subtracted. The origin region, destination region, and fate information included in the waste received and waste removed datasets in Waste Data Interrogator are used in these parts of the calculation. Tonnages of waste treated at landfill sites in England that are exempt from permitting are not included.

Incinerator monitoring reports provided by the Environment Agency are used to obtain the reported tonnages of waste put through incineration in England, whilst Waste Data Interrogator is used to add reported tonnages of waste originating in England that are sent to permitted incinerator sites in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom. Reported tonnages of waste put through incineration includes Energy from Waste (incineration with energy generation in the form of electricity and/or heat).

The reported tonnages of waste put through incineration in England that originated from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom are subtracted. However, the incinerator monitoring reports that are used to obtain the reported tonnages of waste put through incineration in England do not contain information about the origin of the waste. In order to subtract tonnages of waste put through incineration in England that originated in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or outside the United Kingdom, Waste Data Interrogator is used to obtain the proportion of waste sent to permitted incinerator sites in England and that had originated in England. This proportion is then applied to the tonnages of waste put through incineration in England, obtained from the incinerator monitoring reports. It is assumed that the proportion of waste originating in England that is sent to permitted incinerator sites in England is the same as the proportion of waste originating in England that is eventually put through incineration in England. The origin region, destination region, and fate information included in Waste Data Interrogator are again used in these parts of the calculation. Tonnages of waste treated at incinerator or energy recovery sites in England that are exempt from permitting are not included.

Ferrous metals removed from bottom ash which have been put through incineration or used in energy recovery in the United Kingdom but are then sent for treatment other than landfill or incineration are also subtracted for each measure. Incinerator bottom ash metals are identified in Waste Data Interrogator using the LoW code 19 01 02.

Reported tonnages of waste sent outside the United Kingdom for use in energy recovery are obtained using Environment Agency international waste shipments data. The Environment Agency holds records of international shipments permitted under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007. Shipments into or out of the United Kingdom qualify as International Waste Shipments. They are registered to the country where the producer or receiver is registered, regardless of the exit or entrance point from or to the United Kingdom. The Environment Agency holds details of producers and receivers registered in England. This dataset includes waste that typically originates from the mechanical treatment of waste such as sorting, crushing, compacting, and pelletising and is known as refuse derived fuel (RDF). RDF consists largely of combustible components of both municipal and commercial industrial waste, such as plastics and biodegradable waste. Permit holders give indicative figures for how much waste they wish to have approved for import or export. Solid recovered fuel is also included and is different to RDF as it is produced to reach a specific quality standard.

For the purpose of this release, waste put through incineration includes Energy from Waste (incineration with energy generation in the form of electricity and/or heat). Waste used in energy recovery other than conventional Energy from Waste is also included in the definition of residual waste. This includes any waste treatment (excluding anaerobic digestion) that generates energy such as electricity or heat or converts the waste into other energy products such as fuels and substitute natural gas. Though this end-of-life treatment is included in the definition of residual waste, waste treated through energy recovery other than conventional Energy from Waste is not included in the estimates in this release as data is not yet available.

For estimates of residual waste in kilograms per person, estimates of each measure of residual waste are converted to kilograms and are then divided by the produced by the Office for National Statistics. These population figures include all ages and estimate the usually resident population. This is a standard United Nations definition that includes people of all ages residing in a country for 12 months or more whilst excluding visitors and short-term migrants.

The calculation method for each measure of residual waste included in this release is summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary of the calculation method for the estimates of residual waste in this release

Treatment methods	Data source	Included in estimate	Excluded from estimate
Sent to landfill	Environment Agency: Waste Data Interrogator (waste received and removed)	1) Waste sent to landfill in England 2) Waste originating from England sent to landfill in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or outside the UK	1) Waste sent to landfill in England originating from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or outside the UK
Put through incineration (including Energy from Waste)	Environment Agency: Waste Data Interrogator (waste received and removed) Environment Agency: Incinerator monitoring reports	1) Waste put through incineration in England 2) Waste originating from England put through incineration in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or outside the UK	1) Waste put through incineration in England that likely originated from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or outside the UK 2) Ferrous metals removed from bottom ash sent for treatment other than landfill or incineration
Sent outside the UK for energy recovery	Environment Agency: International Waste Shipments exported from England	1) Waste sent outside the UK for energy recovery	Not applicable
Other energy recovery	Not currently included in estimates	Not currently included in estimates	Not currently included in estimates

Note on Table 1:

Where estimates are reported as kilograms per person, tonnages are first converted to kilograms and then the results are divided by the mid-year population estimates for England published by the Office for national Statistics.

Material composition for estimates of material-specific municipal residual waste

In this release, estimates of municipal residual waste are provided for specific materials, including food, plastic, paper and card, metal, and glass. The datasets used to determine the estimates of municipal residual waste described above classify tonnages of waste by LoW code. It is not possible to use the LoW codes that categorise the datasets with these specific materials, so the required tonnages of material-specific municipal residual waste are not obtained through a categorisation using LoW codes.

Instead, estimates of municipal residual waste using the datasets and method described above are multiplied by the estimated proportion of each material in the municipal residual waste stream. These proportions are obtained from a synthesis of analyses using data from 2017, published by the (WRAP) in 2020. The proportions are derived from tonnages of local authority collected municipal waste at point-of-collection for both households and commercial sources and it is assumed that these proportions remain the same for all municipal residual waste treated through the different methods considered in this release. The material composition proportions used in determining the estimates in this release are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Municipal residual waste composition, 2017

Material	Municipal residual waste composition (percentage)
Food	27.0
Paper and card	21.1
Plastic	16.0
Metal	3.5
Glass	2.6
Other	29.7

Source: Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)

Note on Table 2:

The material composition proportions in Table 2 are rounded from the original source.