EU and UK Environmental Regulations Help to Drive Growth in UK Waste Management Market

In recent years, the UK Government has introduced several initiatives to help reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfill, increase recycling and meet EU environmental targets, which has helped to drive growth in the UK waste management industry.

According to Waste Management, a new Market Update by market intelligence provider Key Note, the UK’s waste management industry has experienced robust growth in recent years thanks to environmental regulations. Figures from National Statistics show that the UK waste management industry grew in value by 22.3% between 2009 and 2012, with further growth of 5% estimated for 2013.

In England, the volume of municipal waste entering landfill fell by 38.4% between 2008/2009 and 2012/2013, while the amount of recycled/composted waste increased by 5.2%. Strong growth was also recorded for the volume of waste incinerated (with Energy from Waste [EfW]), which rose by a total of 65.6% over the period.

Waste management in other parts of the UK followed a similar trend to that seen in England. Between 2008/2009 and 2012/2013, the amount of municipal waste recycled in Wales grew by 22.6%, while the amount sent to landfill fell by 38.1%. In Northern Ireland, the amount of waste sent to landfill declined by 29.6% over the 5-year period, while the amount of waste recycled and composted increased by 3.4% and 22.2%, respectively. 

Key Note forecasts that the UK waste management market will grow by 13.6% in value terms between 2014 and 2018, driven by the Government’s effort to meet the increasingly strict environmental regulations and European landfill, recovery and recycling targets.