This statistic shows the total cost of food waste in quick service restaurants in Northern Ireland between 2006 and 2016. During this period costs were highest in 2006 at 4.5 million British pounds and are forecasted to amount to 3.3 million British pounds in 2016.

This statistic shows the total cost of food waste in pubs in England (UK) between 2006 and 2016. Food waste costs dropped during this period, from 409 million British pounds in 2006 to 321 million British pounds in 2011. 330.8 million British pounds in costs are expected in 2016.

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 statistic shows the total cost of food waste in quick service restaurants in Scotland between 2006 and 2016. In 2011 costs amounted to 9.8 million British pounds and are forecasted to remain the same in 2016.

This release contains statistics on waste produced at a UK level. The topics covered in this publication are:

• Waste from Households – 2010-22. UK and country breakdown.
• BMW (Biodegradable Municipal Waste) to landfill – 2010-22. UK and country breakdown.
• Total waste generated breakdown – 2010-20 UK and 2010-2022 England breakdown.
• Total waste treated breakdown – 2010-20 UK and 2010-2022 England breakdown
• Infrastructure breakdown - 2012-20 UK and 2012-2022 England breakdown
• C&I (Commercial and Industrial) waste generation – UK 2010-20, England 2010-22. UK and England breakdown but not DAs.
• C&D (Construction and Demolition) recovery – 2010-22. UK and England breakdown but not DAs.
• Packaging waste recycling and recovery – 2023. UK only.

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

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" class="govuk-link">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" class="govuk-link">2022-2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20170418015547/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results" class="govuk-link">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" class="govuk-link">2014 - 2015

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

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

Historic datasets

Historic datasets

This statistic shows the cost per household of avoidable food and drink waste in the United Kingdom in 2012, by household size. In 2012, 3 person households wasted on average 640 British pounds of food and drink.

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 total cost of food waste in restaurants in England between 2006 and 2016. In 2006 food waste costs in English restaurants stood at 671.7 million British pounds. As forecast for 2016, these costs are expected to increase up to 724.3 million British pounds.

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.

This dataset provides the input files and results for the Grapes Household Simulation Model, which explores the impact of three interventions on the amount of packaging and grape waste generated in UK households. The interventions studied include pack size availability on the market shelves, probability of household refrigerated storage, and impact of storage temperature. The dataset is organised into three folders, each representing an intervention, with subfolders containing input files for different scenarios and a summary file with the results. 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

This statistic displays the volume of food waste produced by the Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2015 to 2023. Between 2015 and 2019, there had been a significant reduction in the volume of food waste produced. In 2022, the volume of food waste had increased to over 21,300 metric tons but dropped again in the following year to a new low of 15,151 metric tons.

The Co-operative Group is commonly known as the Co-op throughout the United Kingdom and consists of a diverse range of retail services, from food retail to insurance services and funeralcare. It is also a well-established ethical retailer and the first to champion Fairtrade products, as well as having high animal welfare standards and a home-grown, locally-sourced product range.

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 includes the results summary and data overview from a lab-scale bioreactor experiment as discussed in the research paper "Selecting fermentation products for food waste valorisation with HRT and OLR as the key operational parameters", published in Waste Management.

The study comprised three sets of operating conditions tested in duplicate reactors fed with food waste. The data comprises a summary on feedstock composition, operating conditions tested, averaged results, product outcome and kinetic study, and microbial community analysis per reactor and per operating condition. The archaeal and bacterial community data includes the final sequences of the operational taxonomic units found and their relative abundance in each sample as determined by 16s rRNA amplicon sequencing, and rarefaction curves. The raw data files have been submitted in the specialized EMBL-EBI database and are available under the accession number PRJEB40478.

This statistic displays the breakdown of food waste in Tesco stores and distribution centers in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2022/23, by category. Prepared foods accounted for ** percent of the total food waste from Tesco's own operations, followed by dairy food at ** percent. The multinational-operating grocery and general merchandise retailer Tesco PLC was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen (1898-1979). The product portfolio includes food and beverages, clothing, home appliances, and financial services. Tesco is one of the leading supermarket brands in the United Kingdom (UK), consistently ranking highest in terms of grocery market share.

This statistic shows the amount of food and drink waste in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2015, through the food chain. It shows that 7.3 million tons of food and drink waste was produced in households, while 0.25 million tons were produced in retail.

This dataset provides the input files and results for the new Household Simulation Model, which explores the impact of four interventions on the amount of packaging and chicken waste generated in UK households. The interventions studied include pack size availability in the market shelves (PCK), shelf life extension for unopened and opened chicken packs (SFH), food portioning in households (PRT), and the likelihood of checking storage and writing a shopping list before the main shopping event (LST). The dataset is organised into four folders, each representing an intervention, with subfolders containing input files for different scenarios and a summary file with the results. 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