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Municipal Waste management

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Municipal Sector Plan

Municipal Sector Plan
Outcomes, policies and actions for managing household waste collected by local authorities.

Towards Zero Waste

Towards Zero Waste
This is the overarching waste strategy for Wales.

Municipal waste is collected and disposed of by local authorities. It includes regular household collections, recycling collections, collections of bulky items, waste received at civic amenity sites, and waste collected from non-household sources.

Targets

The overarching waste strategy “Towards Zero Waste” sets the the following targets for municipal waste collected by local authorities:

  • a minimum of 70% of waste being reused, recycled or composted by 2024/25;
  • a maximum of 30% energy being created from waste by 2024/25;
  • a maximum of 5% of waste being landfilled; and
  • Wales to achieve zero waste by 2050.

The recycling targets become law from April 2012 under the Waste (Wales) Measure 2010. The first statutory target is to reuse, recycle or compost 52% of municipal waste collected by local authorities in 2012-13.

The Landfill Allowances Scheme (Wales) Regulations 2004 (The LAS regulations) came into force in Wales on 1 October 2004, to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) going to landfill sites.

Monitoring progress

From 1996-97 to 2003-04, data on municipal waste was collected by questionnaires. In 2004, an online municipal waste data collection system called WasteDataFlow was launched. This gave local government officers a single, user-friendly and comprehensive system to replace the numerous questionnaires.

Visit: WasteDataFlow (external link)

Annual reporting

The municipal waste management report, is published annually. It aims to monitor and report on the levels and management of municipal waste from local authorities. The first annual report using data from WasteDataFlow was published for 2004-05.

Quarterly reporting

Every 3 months Local Authorities enter their data onto WasteDataFlow to report on recycling, re-use, composting and disposal activities. We report provisional results for Local Authorities in Wales through the Quarterly release. This is a quarterly summary of provisional Local Authority waste data. The Quarterly release is designed to give an early indication of trends.

Useful links

More information on municipal waste management statistics in England is available on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website.

Visit: English municipal waste management statistics: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (external link)

More information on municipal waste management statistics in Northern Ireland is available on the  Northern Ireland Environment Agency website.

Visit: Northern Ireland's municipal waste management statistics: Northern Ireland Environment Agency (external link) 

More information on municipal waste management statistics in Scotland is available on the Scotland Environment Protection Agency website.

Visit:  Scotland's municipal waste management statistics: Scotland Environment Protection Agency website (external link)