Current position

3.140  England and Wales's waste sector has experienced a steady improvement in performance over many years. Since 2005, the analysis presented here suggests this has continued alongside a parallel increase in costs (see Chart 3.P). Service quality has improved as the proportion of waste that is sent to landfill has steadily declined.

3.141 It is particularly worth noting that:

•  the UK produces smaller amounts of municipal wasteper capita , most of which is from households, than other comparable European countries; but

•  the UK still sends half of its municipal waste to landfill, very far behind Germany and the Netherlands, which both send less than one per cent of the municipal waste they generate to landfill.

3.142  Greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector are reducing sharply due to current policies. Between 1990 and 2009 emissions in the waste management sector were reduced by nearly 70 per cent, from just over 59 MtCO2e to just under 18 MtCO2e. To date this has been primarily due to increases in the assumed capture rate of landfill gas for energy (and, to a lesser extent, contributions from policies reducing waste to landfill), with further projected emission declines being driven primarily by the effect of the landfill tax in removing biodegradable waste to landfill.

3.143  Efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of waste are affected by a number of challenges including a lack of 'bring' facilities for businesses to take their waste and recycling, a lack of recycling services in some areas and in relation to some materials, the high cost of some services and a lack of convenience, and a lack of awareness amongst small and medium-sized enterprises of their legal obligations and of services available in their area.