Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the waste hierarchy set out in section 12 of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, what recent estimate her Department has made of the volume of waste material which are capable of being (a) kept in use for longer, (b) reused, (c) repaired and reused, (d) recycled into a new product or use, (e) used to produce fuel, heat or power, (f) incinerated without energy recovery and (g) sent to landfill in the last 12 months.

Defra does not hold estimates or collect this data at a whole economy level, nor does it have data relating to the last 12 months.

Some research has been conducted on specific sectors. For instance, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimated in 2012 that 32% of bulky waste taken to household waste recycling centres could be suitable for reuse. WRAP also estimated that up to 25% of electricals which are discarded by householders could be either repaired or reused.

In relation to (d) recycled into a new product or use, the resources and waste strategy monitoring progress report contains an estimate based on 2017 data from WRAP that 53% of residual waste from household sources consisted of readily recyclable materials, with only 8% being completely unavoidable. Furthermore, of residual plastic waste from household sources, 25% consisted of readily recyclable plastics and a further 31% could be potentially recyclable with technologies in development.

With regard to residual waste (e) to (g), we have not made an assessment of capable use within the last 12 months. However, we publish annual statistics on local authority collected waste management as well as UK statistics on waste.