44% of household waste is recycled
In England, each year we consistently reuse or recycle less than the government target of 60% by 2030.
84% of households contaminate recycling
Contamination affects the quality of recycling or can stop materials being recycled at all.
2.7 billion bottles a year are wasted
An estimated 16 million plastic bottles don't make it into the recycling system every day in England.
England's household recycling rate saw significant growth in the early 2000s but has since plateaued around 44-45% since 2015, with the rate for 2023 at 44.0%. If we are to tackle the amount of waste being littered, burned or buried, recycling will need to increase rapidly.
Human recycling dates back to ancient times. While the first recorded instance of paper recycling can be dated to 1031 in Japan, ancient cultures commonly reused everyday items long before this – mainly due to lack of resources and lengthy manufacturing processes.
There are three key advantages to recycling. It means fewer virgin resources are needed in the manufacturing process, less energy is needed to create products, and less waste ends up polluting the environment. For example, recycling aluminium cans requires no mining of bauxite, uses 95% less energy than creating a can from virgin materials, and means that no cans end up in landfill.
But we are falling further and further behind some of our neighbours in Europe. In Germany, 71% of municipal waste is recycled and Slovenia has seen recycling rates increase from 22% in 2010 to 60% in 2021, showing that a rapid improvement is possible.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, CEO, Keep Britain TidyThe public has a huge role to play in helping drive change but we need to get rid of the existing complexity and develop a simple, nationally consistent collection system combined with tangible rewards to encourage better recycling.
Getting Britain recycling
We have increased effective recycling behaviour through communications campaigns and face-to-face engagement with residents on the doorstep, at community roadshows and at household waste recycling centres. We are also working hard to create the next generation of recyclers through our Eco-Schools programme.
We have also successfully campaigned for policy changes that will reduce litter and waste, including for the introduction of a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium cans, and for extended producer responsibility for packaging, which incentivises producers to use more recyclable materials in their packaging and avoid putting packaging on the market that is hard to recycle because it is made up of a mixture of paper, plastic and metals.
'Simpler Recycling' reforms will standardise collections across England, meaning everyone will be able to recycle the same materials - including food waste - from 2026 and, from 2027, councils will introduce kerbside collection for soft plastics (eg salad bags and carrier bags).
Recycling is good but we can do better
Recycling is better than putting something in landfill or burning it, but it isn’t the best thing that we can do for the environment. Rather, we want the government and people to focus on waste prevention, making use of packaging reduction and reuse schemes to reduce the amount of waste we’re producing in the first place.
As part of our waste prevention work, we run award-winning campaign Buy Nothing New Month, which encourages people to save their pennies - and the planet - by making small changes to their buying habits, such as resisting purchases, buying preloved or finding innovative ways to reuse, repair or rehome things that might have been destined for the bin.
Moving to a circular economy
In 2023, following extensive research, Keep Britain Tidy launched newly designed and tested version of the waste hierarchy as part of fresh guidance to help local authorities and the waste industry better educate people about waste prevention and mindful consumption and accelerate the UK’s transition to a circular economy.
The report showed how using the new waste hierarchy, alongside effectively framed messages, can better engage people about waste prevention and called on the industry to 'speak with one voice' to make it easier for people to understand.
Research revealed that people still largely default to recycling and don't understand that this is only the third best option - behind reducing and reusing - in the countless other waste hierarchies currently in use.
Related content
What is Extended Producer Responsibility?
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a mechanism by which producers are held responsible for their products and their packaging beyond the point of sale. One of the aims of EPR is to turn the tide on litter and waste.
Introducing the deposit return scheme
Due to start in late 2027, the deposit return scheme will increase the recycling of plastic bottles and aluminium cans, reduce waste and cut littering.
Buy Nothing New Month
Every new item we buy comes with an environmental price tag. Could you buy nothing new for just one month?