UK Market Overview

Who pays for waste collection?

It is estimated that nearly 36 million tonnes of municipal waste was generated in the UK in 2004/05.

A total of 30 million tonnes of this waste was collected from households. That's about 500 kg or half a tonne of household waste per person!

Although household rubbish represents a relatively small percentage (about 9%) of the total amount of waste produced it is a highly significant proportion because it contains large quantities of organic waste which can cause pollution problems, as well as materials such as glass and plastics which do not break down easily.

The cost of collection and disposal of household waste is met through taxation. Most commercial and industrial waste is collected and disposed of by the private sector.  The cost of collection and disposal under these arrangements is met through charges.

Charging for waste collection

The concept of direct charging is used to denote charging for waste by weight, volume or a combination of both. Currently there is no legal provision for this for householders within the UK, although examples from other countries show that some form of variable charging can strongly influence recycling and waste minimisation behaviour

Municipal Waste Overview

Environmental Overview

The breakdown of household waste is as follows.  EHS methodologies are able to deal with all of these waste streams and also include rubber.

All EU Governments are seeking to follow the Best Practical Environmental Option (BPEO); to adopt, follow and where economically viable exceed the new EU standards.

The UK Historic Approach

EHS Comparison vs Current Technology

Historically the UK has landfilled (or "dumped") much of its waste, and the engineering of a modern landfill is a complex process to prevent the escape of polluting liquid or gases.

The EHS developed technology offers significant benefits against the current waste management technologies.