Total non-recycled household waste

Household waste is mainly comprised of bottles, cans, clothing, compost, disposables, packaging, food scraps, newspapers and magazines. Household waste recycling is influenced by individual household behaviours, the quality of collection services provided by local authorities, the cost of Landfill Tax and, to a lesser, extent general economic conditions, which may affect the amount of food and goods purchased that result in household waste. The rapid uptake in recycling since the turn of the century has been driven by the view that recycling makes a difference to the environment, which can be in part credited to effective marketing of the benefits of recycling.

According to Defra, over 44.1% of this waste is currently recycled, reused or composted. Household waste that is not recycled is either sent to landfill, used for energy or disposed of following treatment or incineration. In order to limit the amount of waste sent to landfill, the Landfill Tax was introduced in 1996. The tax charges landfill owners an amount per tonne of waste disposed of in landfill. Landfill operators pass this cost on to waste producers.

The pandemic caused the amount of household waste to increase. Government coronavirus measures included closure of non-essential stores, restaurants, bars and venues which meant people spent more time at home and produced more household waste. While the total amount of waste recycled increased, it grew at a lesser rate than total waste collected. Overall, IBISWorld expects that the total volume of non-recycled household waste will fall at a compound annual rate of 3.5% over the five years through 2025-26 to reach 10,768.5 thousand tonnes.

The shortage of HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) drivers is also expected to place pressure on waste collection services. According to the Road Haulage Association, in September 2021, there was a shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers, after many EU workers returned home following the UK's exit from the EU and during the coronavirus pandemic. In order to combat this shortage, the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) has increased the number of weekly vocational tests from 2,000 to 3,000. Additionally, the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) have prioritised HGV provisional license applications and take only two weeks to issue them. Moreover, according to Defra, single-use plastics could be banned following a public consultation launching in Autumn 2021. Consequently, the recycling rate is expected to rise in the current year and the reopening of businesses and the continuous expansion in online shopping is expected to boost the volumes of recyclables generated. The total volume of non-recyclables is anticipated to fall by 3.3% in 2025-26.