A lot of the rubbish you don’t recycle correctly ends up in a landfill. Here are the most important UK landfill statistics you should know.
UK Landfill Statistics & Facts
- Landfill was the second most used waste treatment in the UK in 2018, with 23.6% of waste sent to landfill. (Defra)
- The UK creates 26 million tonnes of waste, of which 14 million tonnes end up on landfill sites. (Defra)
- The amount of rubbish sent to landfill annually is equivalent in weight to burying over 100,000 adult blue whales. (Friends of the Earth)
- There are around 500 operational landfill sites in the UK. (Defra)
- Over a million British homes are within half a mile of a landfill site. (Independent)
- Living near a landfill could knock over £5,000 off the value of your house. (UK Government)
- The UK imposes a tax on landfill waste which in 2022 was £98.60 per tonne for the standard rate and £3.15 per tonne for the lower rate. (UK Government)
- The largest landfill in the UK was the Packington site situated outside Birmingham, covering 380 acres of land. (The First Mile)
- The UK’s biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfills decreased from approximately 6.6 million tonnes in 2019 to 6.1 million in 2020. (UK Government)
- England was responsible for 81% of the biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfills in 2020. (UK Government)
- Wastes from mechanical treatment of waste and mixed municipal waste make up around 88% of all municipal waste at landfills. (UK Government)
- The total waste sent to landfills was reduced by 2.8% from 2016 to 2018. (Defra)
- The total remaining landfill capacity in the UK was 357,665,304 cubic metres at the end of 2021. (UK Government)
- According to one study, the UK’s landfills only have enough space for 175.1 million tonnes of waste. (The Furniture Recycling Group)
What Ends Up in Landfills?
- 280,000 tonnes of recyclable waste is sent to landfills because of contamination during recycling. (Plastic Expert)
- Soils make up 58%, other wastes 26%, household & similar wastes 10%, and mineral waste 6% of the tonnage received by landfills. (UK Government)
- 54% of the UK’s textile waste ended up in landfills in 2019. (LabFresh)
- The UK sends over 20,000 tonnes of battery waste straight to landfills. (Recyclingbins.co.uk)
- UK landfills receive over 80 million aluminium and steel cans every single day. (Recyclingbins.co.uk)
- The aluminium sent to landfills is worth approximately £36 million annually. (Recyclingbins.co.uk)
- One billion black plastic food trays go to landfill annually in the UK. (Friends of the Earth)
- 28 billion glass bottles and jars are sent to landfills annually, which puts a lot of stress on these sites, as glass doesn’t decompose. ((Recyclingbins.co.uk)
- Food waste in landfills releases methane which is a damaging greenhouse gas but can also create electricity. (Recyclingbins.co.uk)
- In 2021, UK landfills generated 3,313-gigawatt hours of electricity. (Statista)
- Electricity generated from landfill gas has declined in the past decade, peaking at 5,318-gigawatt hours in 2011. (Statista)