J4: Residual waste arising by type and sector

Short description

This indicator shows how much waste is incinerated and landfilled in England rather than recycled, reused or treated further up the waste hierarchy. Data presented are captured through the Environment Agency’s permitted site data and annual monitoring reports. There are still gaps in the data and these will need to be addressed in order to provide reporting by source sector.

Readiness and links to data

This indicator is not available for reporting in 2021 in a finalised form. An interim indicator is presented here that shows trends in waste landfilled or incinerated (with and without energy recovery) in England, excluding major minerals. Some data are available via the Environment Agency’s Waste Data Interrogator and incineration monitoring reports, but further work is required to split these data by source sector.

Trend description

Residual waste here refers to waste sent to landfill or incineration in England. In 2019, the total quantity of waste (excluding major mineral wastes) landfilled or incinerated in England was 29.8 million tonnes, a 6.0% reduction against levels in 2010 (31.7 million tonnes). This reduction was due to less waste being landfilled (falling by 43.6% over the period), whereas waste sent to incineration more than doubled, increasing by 156.2% over the same period.