This statistic presents costs of avoidable food waste by cost element in quick service restaurants in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013. Food purchase accounted for more than half of the cost of food waste in UK QSRs, at 58.6 percent. Labour shared 34.1 percent of the cost.

This statistic shows the weekly food and drink waste per household, by avoidability, in the United Kingdom in 2012. Three kilos of avoidable waste was generated weekly by an average UK household in 2012.

This statistic shows the total cost of food waste in quick service restaurants in Wales between 2006 to 2016. In 2011 costs amounted to 4.1 million British pounds, and are forecasted to stay the same in 2016.

This publication covers annual estimates for waste collected by local authorities in England and the regions. These statistics are based on data submitted by all local authorities in England to WasteDataFlow on the waste they collect and manage.

The methodology and recycling explainer documents give background and context to this statistical notice, accompanying datasets and the waste and recycling measures they present.

There is also a further historical note on the definition of local authority collected waste relating to earlier releases.

The entire raw dataset is available in CSV format and can be found here: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/0e0c12d8-24f6-461f-b4bc-f6d6a5bf2de5/wastedataflow-local-authority-waste-management">WasteDataFlow - Local Authority waste management - data.gov.uk

Historic releases

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250102235615/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2022-2023

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230802024231/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results-202122">2021- 2022

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20220503105415/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2020 - 2021

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20210728220801/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2019-2020

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20200604042448/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2018 - 2019

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20190903035029/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2017 - 2018

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20181207030346/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2016 - 2017

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20170418015547/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2015 - 2016 This includes the ad hoc release entitled “Provisional 2016/17 local authority data on waste collection and treatment for England (April to June and July to September 2016)”.

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20160512131028/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2014 - 2015

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20150401112814/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2013 - 2014

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20140321171631/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results">2012 - 2013

Historic datasets

Historic datasets

In May 2018, the average self-reported level of food waste for bread, chicken, milk, and potatoes in the United Kingdom (U.K.) amounted to approximately **** percent. By June 2021, it had increased up to **** percent. The reported waste occurred the last time these products were purchased. The decline in food waste during the pandemic (April 2020) has returned to pre-pandemic levels in June 2021 when food waste saw the same levels as in November of 2018.

This release contains statistics on waste produced at a UK level. The topics covered in this publication are: •Waste from Households – 2010-16. UK and country breakdown. •BMW (Biodegradable Municipal Waste) to landfill – 2010-16. UK and country breakdown. •WStatR (Waste Statistics Regulation) generation breakdown – 2012 & 2014. UK and England breakdown but not DAs. •WStatR treatment breakdown – 2012 & 2014. UK and England breakdown but not DAs. •WStatR infrastructure breakdown - 2014. UK and England breakdown but not DAs. •C&I (Commercial and Industrial) waste generation – UK 2010, 2012 & 2014, England 2010 - 2016. UK and England breakdown but not DAs. •C&D (Construction and Demolition) recovery – 2010-15. UK and England breakdown but not DAs. •Packaging waste recycling and recovery – 2016. UK only.

UK figures are compiled to comply with reporting requirements against the EC Waste Framework Directive, EC Waste Statistics Regulation, EC Landfill Directive and EC Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

If you require the datasets in a more accessible format, please contact Waste Statistics (RAS) at WasteStatistics@defra.gsi.gov.uk

This statistic shows the distribution of avoidable food and drink waste per household per week in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2012, by food group. The average UK household wasted 0.25 kilograms of fresh fruit.

This statistic presents the total cost of food waste in restaurants in Northern Ireland between 2006 and 2016. In 2011 costs amounted to 7.2 million British pounds, and were forecasted to reach 7.1 million British pounds in 2016.

This dataset provides the input files and results for the Tomato Household Simulation Model, which explores the impact of two interventions on the amount of packaging and tomato waste generated in UK households. The interventions studied include packaging format available on the market shelves and storage temperature (4 °C vs 7 °C). The dataset is organised into two folders, each representing an intervention, with subfolders containing input files for different scenarios. The provided data can be used to analyse the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing packaging and food waste and to inform policy-making and consumer behavior change efforts.

THE PROBLEM Plastic packaging waste is a major issue that has recently entered public consciousness, with the British government committing to a 25-year plan that would phase out disposable packaging by 2042. Around 41% of plastic packaging is used for food, with the UK generating 1 million tonnes per year of packaging waste. Food packaging has had a 1844% increase in recycling since 2007, yet still only one third of food packaging is currently recycled [3]. Currently many consumers are boycotting plastic packaging. However, this is leading to a rise in food waste (and foodborne illness risk) due to decreased shelf life. Up to a third of the resources used to produce food could be saved by eliminating food waste [1]. In the UK, approximately 10 million tonnes of food are wasted every year, with the average family (i.e. a household containing children) spending £700 a year on food that is wasted. 31% of avoidable household food waste (1.3 million tonnes), is caused by a mismatch of packaging, pack, and portion size, and household food habits [2]. Plastic pollution and food waste can be reduced through product re-design and other household interventions. However, there is little evidence to determine the best solutions to reduce plastic pollution and food waste. The food industry and consumers have a variety of possible solutions, but no way of knowing the impacts and unintended consequences (without costly, time consuming trials and measurement). This is a major barrier to empowering the food system to enable the rapid reduction of plastic waste. THE VISION This project reduces plastic pollution (and food waste) by providing a decision support tool to trigger action in the food industry and by consumers. Evidence concerning plastic and food waste reduction (and trade-offs with cost, and environmental impacts) will be generated by updating the Household Simulation Model (HHSM). The HHSM was piloted by the University of Sheffield and WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) to model the impacts of food product innovation quickly, to enable manufacturers to select the best innovations and interventions, and to prioritise their development and deployment. This project will incorporate into the current HHSM, data on 1) plastic packaging options and composition (from Valpak/WRAP), 2) household behavioural insights around packaging (single and reuse options) and food (provided by UoS/WRAP), with specific fresh produce data (from Greenwich) 3) plastic in the supply chain and environmental impacts (via SCEnATi- a big data analytics tool of the food supply chain processes (provided by Sheffield). The updated HHSM will enable the quantification of plastic and food waste reduction, and the environmental and monetary trade-offs of various solutions. This will be done by developing an optimization engine and integrating it with the updated HHSM which will further the simulation optimization methodology with the findings from applying developed meta-heuristic algorithms to this problem. Possible solutions include offering consumers different pack sizes, or changing packaging type/shape/reusability/durability. The most successful solutions will be translated into consumer and industry guidance focusing on the top 30 foods linked to the highest waste and tradeoff potential. This will enable rapid product and food system redesign. This guidance will be open access, and deployed through WRAP and global industry networks, and open access web tools. WRAP is coordinating the voluntary agreements UK Plastics Pact and the Courtauld Commitment 2025 (focused on food waste and carbon reduction). This allows rapid scaling of the HHSM outputs throughout the UK. References: [1] Institution of Mechanical Engineers, "Global food - Waste not, want not" London, 2013 [2] Quested, T. E., et al. "Spaghetti soup: The complex world of food waste behaviours." RCR 79 (2013): 43-51. [3] Recoup 2018, UK Household Plastics Collection

Map and evaluate the effectiveness of food loss and waste reduction interventions in low- and middle-income countries, determine the reduction pathways related to waste prevention, re-use or recycling, and identify social, economic, environmental and nutritional co-benefits as they relate to the intervention. This will be done by: (i) systematically reviewing scientific and grey literature sources and (ii) conducting meta-analyses by food group where appropriate.

This dataset provides the input files and results for the Mushrooms Household Simulation Model, which explores the impact of four interventions on the amount of packaging and mushroom (whole and sliced) waste generated in UK households. The interventions studied include storage temperature, storage and freezer use, pack size availability and packaging format (plastic packaging vs. Earth bag). The dataset is organised into four folders, each representing one interventions, with subfolders containing input files for different scenarios. This data can be used to analyse the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing packaging and food waste and to inform policymakers and consumer behavioural change efforts.

THE PROBLEM Plastic packaging waste is a major issue that has recently entered public consciousness, with the British government committing to a 25-year plan that would phase out disposable packaging by 2042. Around 41% of plastic packaging is used for food, with the UK generating 1 million tonnes per year of packaging waste. Food packaging has had a 1844% increase in recycling since 2007, yet still only one third of food packaging is currently recycled [3]. Currently many consumers are boycotting plastic packaging. However, this is leading to a rise in food waste (and foodborne illness risk) due to decreased shelf life. Up to a third of the resources used to produce food could be saved by eliminating food waste [1]. In the UK, approximately 10 million tonnes of food are wasted every year, with the average family (i.e. a household containing children) spending £700 a year on food that is wasted. 31% of avoidable household food waste (1.3 million tonnes), is caused by a mismatch of packaging, pack, and portion size, and household food habits [2]. Plastic pollution and food waste can be reduced through product re-design and other household interventions. However, there is little evidence to determine the best solutions to reduce plastic pollution and food waste. The food industry and consumers have a variety of possible solutions, but no way of knowing the impacts and unintended consequences (without costly, time consuming trials and measurement). This is a major barrier to empowering the food system to enable the rapid reduction of plastic waste.

THE VISION This project reduces plastic pollution (and food waste) by providing a decision support tool to trigger action in the food industry and by consumers. Evidence concerning plastic and food waste reduction (and trade-offs with cost, and environmental impacts) will be generated by updating the Household Simulation Model (HHSM). The HHSM was piloted by the University of Sheffield and WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) to model the impacts of food product innovation quickly, to enable manufacturers to select the best innovations and interventions, and to prioritise their development and deployment. This project will incorporate into the current HHSM, data on 1) plastic packaging options and composition (from Valpak/WRAP), 2) household behavioural insights around packaging (single and reuse options) and food (provided by UoS/WRAP), with specific fresh produce data (from Greenwich) 3) plastic in the supply chain and environmental impacts (via SCEnATi- a big data analytics tool of the food supply chain processes (provided by Sheffield). The updated HHSM will enable the quantification of plastic and food waste reduction, and the environmental and monetary trade-offs of various solutions. This will be done by developing an optimization engine and integrating it with the updated HHSM which will further the simulation optimization methodology with the findings from applying developed meta-heuristic algorithms to this problem. Possible solutions include offering consumers different pack sizes, or changing packaging type/shape/reusability/durability. The most successful solutions will be translated into consumer and industry guidance focusing on the top 30 foods linked to the highest waste and tradeoff potential. This will enable rapid product and food system redesign. This guidance will be open access, and deployed through WRAP and global industry networks, and open access web tools. WRAP is coordinating the voluntary agreements UK Plastics Pact and the Courtauld Commitment 2025 (focused on food waste and carbon reduction). This allows rapid scaling of the HHSM outputs throughout the UK.

These datasets contain the annual results for local authority collected waste in London and England. Local authority collected waste statistics from the quarterly reporting to WasteDataFlow. Data in this table shows Local Authority, London and England data. Information on the median cost of different types of waste management is also included. http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/environment/publications/the-mayors-waste-management-strategies https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-for-england-quarterly-estimates http://www.wastedataflow.org/reports/default.aspx

This statistic shows the total cost of food waste in restaurants in Wales between 2006 and 2016. Costs amounted to 8.8 million British pounds in 2009 and were expected to grow to 9.9 million British pounds in 2016.

This project examined supermarket pricing behaviour in respect of special offers designed to appeal to consumers to encourage them to make additional purchases, which in turn might lead to consumers overeating (and thus exacerbating obesity problems in the United Kingdom population) or wasting uneaten food products (and thus exacerbating household food waste problems in the UK). The data produced result from the analysis of summarised data on different types of pricing offers made by four UK supermarket retailers, covering weekly collected price data from their websites for a one year period running from August 2010 to August 2011, in total covering 1,287,714 pricing observations. The price data covered special offers and the summary aggregate data was based on the research team's own calculations of special offers offered by the supermarkets across a broad group of products.

Further information may be found on the ESRC's The Impact of Retail Pricing on Overeating and Food Waste award webpage.

Table shows the proportion of collected household waste which is recycled or composted. Figures for 2004/5 were taken from the London Councils organisation as the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) do not list complete LA level statistics for this year. From 1998/99 to 2003/04 estimates for household waste recycling (including composting) rates are based on data supplied to the annual DEFRA Municipal Waste Management Survey. From 1998/99 to 2001/02 figures revised since previous publication. Recycling/composting rates for 1998-99 were first published in Annex A of "Guidance in Municipal Waste Management Strategies" published by DEFRA in March 2001 and 1999/00 rates in Annex B of the consultation paper on "Distribution of the £140 Million Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund", available from https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/waste-and-recycling-statistics The recycling rate is calculated as set out below. For Waste Collection Authorities (WCA) and Unitary Authorities (UA): X/Y x 100, where: X = Tonnage of household waste collected by the WCA or UA which is sent for recycling/composting (including private/voluntary collections of household waste for recycling) Y = Total tonnage of household waste collected by the WCA or UA (including private/voluntary collections of household waste for recycling) For Waste Disposal Authorities (WDA): X/Y x 100, where: X = Tonnage of household waste collected by the WDA which is sent for recycling plus tonnage of household waste which is sent for recycling by the constituent WCAs (including private/voluntary collections of household waste for recycling) Y = Total tonnage of household waste collected at Civic Amenity sites by the WDA plus total tonnage of household waste collected by constituent WCAs (including private/voluntary collections of household waste for recycling) Annual Results for Local authority collected waste management published by are available here. For more Local Authority Waste and Recycling Information visit the WRAP Portal. The site is accessible to the public but does require registration on the first visit.