DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (132/08) issued by
The Government News Network on 8 May 2008
STATISTICAL RELEASE
Defra today published the second provisional set of estimates
from the Department's 2007/8 survey of municipal waste in
England. These provisional results incorporate the second quarter
of the financial year (July to September 2007) and are based on
information supplied by local authorities to WasteDataFlow.
Limitations of the data
These data are provisional as not all
returns have completed full validation and returns to
WasteDataFlow can be revised by local authorities during the
scheme year. There are also seasonal effects on waste arisings and
management which means care needs to be taken when assessing
trends. Final figures will be released in the annual National
Statistics release in November 2008.
For July to September 2007, all 394 local authorities submitted
data to WasteDataFlow but at the time the data were downloaded for
this release, returns from 7 local authorities had not completed
validation. The unvalidated returns have a small overall impact
on the statistics, accounting for 1% of the estimated total
municipal waste.
Key findings
To minimise the effects of seasonal
fluctuations, comparisons are made between the year April 2006 to
March 2007 and the year October 2006 to September 2007, i.e.
encompassing the provisional results for the quarter July to
September 2007.
Total municipal waste changed little in the year to end September
2007, decreasing from 29.1 million tonnes to 29.0 million tonnes,
or 0.3%. A similar small decrease in total household waste was
observed, from 25.8 to 25.7 million tonnes. Less waste was sent to
landfill, decreasing from 16.9 to 16.1 million tonnes.
There was an increase in the household recycling rate, from the
average rate 30.9% between April 2006 and March 2007 to 33.2%
between October 2006 and September 2007. The average residual
household waste per head decreased from 353kg per head between
April 2006 and March 2007 to 340 kg per head between October 2006
and September 2007.
Timing of next release and revisions
Quarterly statistics are
released to a regular timetable. Estimates for October to December
2007 will be released in early August 2008 and the final annual
set of data for the financial year 2007/8 will be published in
early November 2008. This dataset will include revisions to any
quarterly estimates. It is not intended that estimates for
previous quarters will be revised during the quarterly statistics
releases, i.e. revisions will only occur in the final annual
statistics release.
The tables showing summary estimates, by region, and a more
detailed description of the data and methodology can be found in a
statistical note on the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/wastats/index.htm
Notes to editors
1. These tables are the first release of
provisional data from WasteDataFlow for the second quarter of
2007/8. These national and regional estimates are based on local
authority returns in England.
2. The data were downloaded from WasteDataFlow on 31st March
2007. At this time there was a 100% response rate, but validation
of returns had not been completed for 7 local authorities.
3. Household waste includes household collection rounds
('bin' waste), other household collections such as
bulky waste collections, waste from services such as litter
collections, waste from civic amenity sites and wastes separately
collected for recycling or composting through bring/drop off
schemes, kerbside schemes and at civic amenity sites. Municipal
waste is that which comes under the control of the Local Authority
and includes household waste and other wastes collected by a waste
collection authority or its agents, such as municipal parks and
gardens waste, beach cleansing waste, commercial or industrial
waste, and waste resulting from the clearance of fly-tipped materials.
4. The amount of waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting
is that which is accepted by the reprocessor. As such it excludes
any recycling rejects that occur during collection, sorting or
further treatment. Waste diverted for recycling from the residual
stream by further processing is included in the recycling tonnages.
5. Information on individual local authorities can be obtained
from WasteDataFlow by registering for public access and running
summary reports.
Public enquiries 08459 335577;
Press notices are available on
our website http://www.defra.gov.uk
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