ARCHIVE: e-Digest Statistics about: Waste and Recycling

Resource recovery and recycling of materials from waste streams

A number of ratios have been developed for comparing recycling performance. Terms such as 'recovery rate' and 'recycling rate' are widely used, but are defined in different ways by different users. Such terms are, therefore, open to misinterpretation.

Owing to the confusion over the term 'recycling rate', the ratios presented in the tables in this section do not use this terminology. The ratios shown reflect the amount of secondary material used (scrap collected less exported scrap plus imported scrap) in the UK in a year as a proportion of total consumption in that year. This gives some indication of the extent to which secondary material is supplementing raw materials in the feedstock.

The weakness of this definition is that material which is being recycled now and related to current consumption might originally have been delivered to an end market some years ago. For products that have a short lifetime, i.e. are discarded within 12 months of purchase, this is of little importance. However, materials such as aluminium may be used in products which have a life-span of many years and distortions arise because these materials may have been placed on the market up to 30 years ago.

In Detail:
Ferrous metal
Aluminium
Non-ferrous metals
Paper and board
Glass
Plastic Packaging
Packaging
Further Information:
Key Facts:
Materials recycling compared to consumption
Sustainable Development Indicators:
Framework Indicator: Waste
Framework indicator: Resource use
Data Tables:
Table
No.		 Title Download
file type
14 Weight of ferrous scrap recovered and amount of post-use scrap recycled as a proportion of consumption: 1984-1998
15 Weight of aluminium scrap recovered and amount of post-use scrap recycled as a proportion of consumption: 1984-1998
16 Aluminium can recycling: 1989-2001
17 Weight of copper scrap recovered and amount of post-use scrap recycled as a proportion of consumption: 1984 - 2001, United Kingdom
18 Weight of lead scrap recovered and amount of post-use scrap recycled as a proportion of consumption: 1984-2002, United Kingdom
19 Weight of zinc scrap recovered and amount of post-use scrap recycled as a proportion of consumption: 1984-2002, United Kingdom
20 Recovery and recycling of waste paper and board: 1980-2002, United Kingdom
21 Recycled content of newsprint feedstock: 1990-1998, United Kingdom
22 Recovery and re-use of glass cullet: 1984-2001, United Kingdom
23 Recycling of plastic, 1984-2001, United Kingdom
24 Packaging-recovery and recycling (tonnes and as a percentage of total waste packaging), 1998-2002, United Kingdom
Internet Links:
Defra: Recycling and Waste
Defra: Packaging and Packaging Waste

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Page last modified: 16 September 2003
Page published: 10 September 2003