STATISTICAL RELEASE
Date: 8 February 2008
Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR
Out of hours telephone 020 7270 8960
Municipal waste management statistics
Provisional Quarter 1 2007/08
Defra today published the first provisional set of estimates from the Department’s 2007/8 survey of municipal waste. These provisional results incorporate the first quarter of the financial year (April to June 2007) and are based on information supplied by local authorities in England to WasteDataFlow.
Limitations of the data
This is an Experimental National Statistics series as it is the first time that quarterly estimates from WasteDataFlow have been produced.
These data are provisional as not all returns have completed full validation and returns to WasteDataFlow can be revised by local authorities during the scheme year. There are also seasonal effects on waste arisings and management which means care needs to be taken when assessing trends. Final figures will be released in the annual National Statistics release in November 2008.
For April to June 2007, all 394 local authorities submitted data to WasteDataFlow but at the time the data were downloaded for this release, returns from 7 local authorities had not completed validation. The unvalidated returns have a small overall impact on the statistics, accounting for 1% of the estimated total municipal waste.
Key findings
To minimize the effects of seasonal fluctuations, comparisons are made between the year April 2006 to March 2007 and the year July 2006 to June 2007, i.e. encompassing the provisional results for the quarter April to June 2007.
Total municipal waste changed little in the year to end June 2007, decreasing from 29.1 million tonnes to 29.0 million tonnes (0.6%). A similar small decrease in total household waste was observed, from 25.8 to 25.6 million tonnes.
Less waste was sent to landfill, decreasing from 16.9 to 16.4 million tonnes. There was an increase in the household recycling and composting rate, from the average rate of 30.9% between April and March 2007 to 32.0% between July and June 2007.
The residual household waste per head has decreased from 353kg per head to 345 kg per head.
Timing of next release and revisions
Quarterly statistics will now be released to a regular timetable. Estimates for July to September 2007 will be released in early May 2008 and estimates for October to December 2007 will be released in early August 2008. In November 2008, the final annual set of data for the financial year 2007/8 will be published; this will include revisions to any quarterly estimates. It is not intended that estimates for previous quarters will be revised during the quarterly statistics releases, i.e. revisions will only occur in the final annual statistics release.
The tables showing summary estimates, by region, and a more detailed description of the data and methodology can be found in a statistical note on the Defra website at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/wastats/index.htm
Notes to editors
1. These tables are the first release of provisional data from WasteDataFlow for the first quarter of 2007/8. These national and regional estimates are based on local authority returns in England.
2. In line with the National Statistics Code of Practice, these data are released as an experimental national statistic. This series is an improvement to existing outputs but it is still subject to testing in terms of data quality and meeting customer needs.
3. The data were downloaded from WasteDataFlow on 29th December 2007. At this time there was a 100% response rate, but validation of returns had not been completed for 7 local authorities.
4. Household waste includes household collection rounds (‘bin’ waste), other household collections such as bulky waste collections, waste from services such as litter collections, waste from civic amenity sites and wastes separately collected for recycling or composting through bring/drop off schemes, kerbside schemes and at civic amenity sites. Municipal waste is that which comes under the control of the Local Authority and includes household waste and other wastes collected by a waste collection authority or its agents, such as municipal parks and gardens waste, beach cleansing waste, commercial or industrial waste, and waste resulting from the clearance of fly-tipped materials.
5. The amount of waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting is that which is accepted by the reprocessor. As such it excludes any recycling rejects that occur during collection, sorting or further treatment. Waste diverted for recycling from the residual stream by further processing is included in the recycling tonnages.
6. Information on individual local authorities can be obtained from WasteDataFlow by registering for public access and running summary reports.
End
Public enquiries: 08459 335577
News releases available on our website:
www.defra.gov.uk
Defra's aim is sustainable development
Page published: 8 February 2008