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Made In England

Made in England ResearchDataset

UK recycling statistics and facts

The UK recycled 44.5% of household waste in 2024, and 73.2% of packaging. Household recycling rates by nation since 2010, packaging by material, and the figures most often quoted on cans, plastics, food waste, electricals and Christmas waste.

44.5%UK household waste recycled, 2024
58.6%Wales, the highest of the four nations
95%energy saved by recycling aluminium

Key figures

  • 73.2%of UK packaging was recycled in 2024. Steel and paper were highest, at over 84%. Plastic was 53.5%.
  • 81%of aluminium drinks cans were recycled in the UK in 2024.
  • 46.0%the UK's highest household recycling rate, in 2019. It was 40.4% in 2010.
  • 26.2mtonnes of waste thrown away by UK households in 2024. Scotland had the lowest recycling rate, at 42.7%.

Household recycling rates, 2010 to 2024

The share of household waste that is recycled, composted or reused, by nation. The UK rate rose quickly to 2014, has stayed at around 44 to 46% since, and fell back slightly from its 2019 peak of 46.0%. Wales has had the highest rate every year. Tap or hover on the chart to see the figures for a year, and use the buttons to show or hide a nation.

Recycling rate for waste from households, by calendar year. From 2015 the rates include metal recovered from incinerator ash (IBAm), as Defra's headline figures do. Before 2015 that was not measured. The table below has every figure.

Year UK England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland UK, excluding IBAm
2010 40.4 41.2 32.5 44.0 37.8 40.4
2011 42.9 43.3 37.1 49.0 40.0 42.9
2012 43.9 44.1 38.2 52.1 40.7 43.9
2013 44.1 44.2 39.6 52.2 41.5 44.1
2014 44.8 44.8 41.0 53.3 42.6 44.8
2015 44.5 44.3 42.1 53.3 42.1 44.1
2016 45.1 44.9 42.8 54.8 43.3 44.6
2017 45.5 45.2 43.5 55.2 46.3 44.8
2018 45.0 44.7 42.8 54.1 47.7 44.3
2019 46.0 45.5 43.5 56.6 50.6 45.2
2020 44.5 44.0 41.0 56.3 49.1 43.6
2021 44.6 44.1 41.7 56.4 48.4 43.7
2022 44.1 43.4 42.0 56.5 49.2 43.1
2023 44.6 44.0 42.2 57.0 50.2 43.7
2024 44.5 43.8 42.7 58.6 50.1 43.6

Source: Defra, UK statistics on waste, 23 September 2026, and the Defra, UK statistics on waste dataset, September 2026. The UK excluding IBAm column gives a like-for-like series back to 2010. UK households threw away 26.2 million tonnes of waste in 2024. Scotland and Wales also publish their own recycling rates on different measures, so their own figures can differ from these.

Packaging recycling by material

Of the 11.1 million tonnes of packaging used in the UK in 2024, 8.2 million tonnes was recycled. Steel, paper and card, and glass have the highest rates. Plastic and wood have the lowest. Plastic and steel rose in the provisional 2025 figures, while the other materials fell.

Material 2024 (%) 2025, provisional (%) Recycled in 2024 (thousand tonnes)
All packaging 73.2 70.5 8,154
Paper and card 84.1 80.3 4,069
Glass 79.1 75.1 1,759
Steel 85.5 88.5 379
Aluminium 65.9 61.1 157
Plastic 53.5 57.3 1,154
Wood 51.7 43.7 634

Source: Defra, UK statistics on waste, 23 September 2026. These rates use a new count of the packaging firms place on the market, from Reported Packaging Data, which began in 2024. The 2025 figures are provisional.

The longer run

On the older measure, which goes back to 2012, the share of plastic packaging recycled has doubled. Steel rose by 21 points and aluminium by 16, while paper and card fell by 12. The two measures count packaging differently, so they should not be mixed.

Material 2012 (%) 2024 (%)
All packaging 61.4 64.1
Paper and card 86.5 74.3
Glass 67.8 65.7
Steel 55.5 76.3
Aluminium 38.5 54.7
Plastic 25.2 51.0
Wood 51.3 42.4

Source: Defra, UK statistics on waste dataset, September 2026, packaging figures from the National Packaging Waste Database (PackFlow).

Cans and aluminium

Metal can be recycled again and again without losing quality, which is why aluminium cans are often held up as the best case for recycling.

Plastics

Food waste and composting

Food waste has its own page, Food waste in numbers, with figures for the UK, Europe and the world. These are the figures most often quoted alongside recycling.

Electricals

Christmas waste

The Christmas card figures are from WRAP's 2015 campaign and are still the ones most quoted. We have not found a newer estimate.

About the figures

The household recycling rate is the official measure of how much waste from households is sent for recycling, composting or reuse, as a share of all the waste households throw away. It is reported for the UK by Defra each year, using data from councils in each nation. Packaging rates come from what packaging firms report they place on the market and what is recycled.

The other figures are quoted from the organisations that published them, with the date. Some are estimates from campaigns, not official statistics, and we say so where that matters.

Old Recycle Now figures

Some older pages from Recycle Now, the recycling campaign run by WRAP, are no longer online, including its pages on how food waste and electricals are recycled. Others have been replaced by newer pages that no longer carry the figures they were often cited for, such as the Christmas packaging figures and the growth in plastic use. This page gathers those figures, with current sources. For what can be recycled where you live, use the Recycle Now recycling locator.

Method

Household and packaging figures are taken from Defra's UK statistics on waste, published on 23 September 2026. Other figures are quoted from the sources linked beside them. Where we compare years, the arithmetic is our own. We quote the published figures with credit, and do not offer the data as a download.

Next update

We will add the 2025 household figures when Defra publishes them, usually in the autumn.

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Suggested citation

Made in England Research, UK recycling statistics and facts, from Defra and other sources. https://madeinengland.com/pages/uk-recycling-statistics

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