This year’s Global Recycling Day theme, ‘Don’t Think Waste. Think Opportunity!’, reflects a growing shift in how the waste and recycling sector approaches materials. Increasingly, waste is being viewed not as something to dispose of, but as a resource that can be recovered, reused and reintegrated into the economy.
However, while awareness of recycling has increased significantly over the past two decades, UK recycling performance has largely plateaued. According to Defra’s latest UK statistics on waste, the recycling rate for waste from households reached 44.6% in 2023, a marginal increase from 44.1% in 2022. While the improvement is positive, it highlights how progress has slowed and why further action is needed to drive higher recovery rates. Alongside household waste, improving the management of commercial and industrial waste streams will also be key to increasing overall recycling levels.
Policy developments are beginning to play an important role in this shift. The introduction of Simpler Recycling in England last year, which requires businesses with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees to separate key waste streams, marks a significant step towards making recycling a standard operational requirement for businesses. Over time, measures like this should help improve both the volume and quality of recyclable material being collected from business waste streams.
From an operational perspective, the focus across the sector is increasingly on diverting as much material as possible from landfill. At Willshee’s, this is reflected in a long-term strategy to achieve zero waste to landfill, supported by infrastructure investment and improved material recovery.
Recent investment in a new Materials Recycling Facility in Swadlincote will increase the amount of recyclables that can be recovered from customer waste. Materials that cannot be recycled can instead be processed into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) or Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) for use within the Energy from Waste sector, ensuring that even residual waste is diverted away from landfill.
As Global Recycling Day highlights, the opportunity now lies in continuing to improve waste separation, investing in modern recycling infrastructure, and strengthening policy frameworks that encourage businesses and households to treat waste as a valuable resource rather than something to discard.