Waste Diversion from Landfill

“Waste diversion” refers to the process of redirecting waste away from landfills and incineration towards more sustainable waste management practices, such as recycling, composting, and reuse. The goal of waste diversion is to minimize the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, reduce environmental impact, conserve natural resources, and often reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with waste disposal. By diverting waste, communities and organizations can manage resources more efficiently and promote a more sustainable approach to waste management. 

Based on UK statistics on waste, the UK generated 222.2 million tonnes of total waste in 2018, an increase of 1.8% from the 218.3 million tonnes generated in 2016. England contributed significantly to this total, generating 187.3 million tonnes of waste in 2018, which represents an increase of 1.4% from 2016 and accounts for 84% of the UK’s total waste. These statistics highlight the importance of waste diversion in managing the growing volume of waste and mitigating its environmental impacts. By improving waste diversion practices, the UK can address the increasing waste generation and enhance its efforts towards sustainability and resource conservation. 

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EN2.1

Waste Diversion from Landfill

Waste and Recycling
Environment

Key Value

252 per tCO2e or 25.2p per kgCO2e

The Carbon Waste and Resources Metric (Carbon WARM) was created by WRAP at DEFRA’s request to monitor and evaluate the Greenhouse Gas emissions impact, measured as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), of the Resources and Waste Strategy. (Research date is 2019-2020.) This metric is designed to complement traditional weight-based monitoring and evaluation by emphasizing the environmental (climate) impacts of waste and resource management, and it replaces the previous metric published in 2012. 

All landfill emissions were supplied directly by DEFRA based on the MELMod landfill emissions model and are the same as the gas emissions factors supplied by BEIS.

Greenhouse gas emissions values (“carbon values”) are used across UK government for valuing impacts on GHG emissions resulting from policy interventions. They represent a monetary value that society places on one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (£/tCO2e). 

The monetary value of carbon comes from “Valuation of greenhouse gas emissions: for policy appraisal and evaluation” (published in 2021). 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuing-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-policy-appraisal/valuation-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-policy-appraisal-and-evaluation  

Carbon values in £2020 prices per tonne of CO2 for 2023 is £252 and per kg of CO2 is £0.252. 

 

Bronze

Effort

Accuracy

Monetised value:

At the Bronze level, you should calculate the approximate carbon footprint, as each waste produces different levels of carbon emissions.  

The average Carbon footprint for Landfill is 347.25 kg.CO2e per tonne and Carbon values in £2020 prices per kg of CO2 is £0.252.

Thus, the headline value is

347.25kg.CO2e*£0.252=£87.5 per tonne of waste. 

Here’s an example

Assume as an organization you diverted 100 tonne of waste from landfill and you don’t know material of the waste. Thus, you can approximately calculate monetized value of the waste diversion from landfill as (100tonne*347.25 kg.CO2e) *£0.252=£8,750.7 

Silver

Effort

Accuracy

Monetised value:

At the Silver level, you should calculate your approximate carbon footprint, by material of waste, as each material produces different levels of carbon emissions. 

Table 1 shows the results as a footprint for different materials.

Table 1 Carbon WARM, unnormalized values (kg.CO2e/tonne) 

Material  Landfill – Carbon footprint 
Food  627 
Garden  579 
Food and garden  592 
Paper and board  1042 
Steel  9 
Aluminium  9 
Mixed(cans)  9 
Glass  9 
Textiles  445 
Dense plastics  9 
Film  9 
Wood  828 
Average  347.25 

These numbers likely represent the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions associated with each material. The higher the value, the greater the environmental impact. For example, paper and board have a relatively high footprint compared to dense plastics or glass. 

Here’s an example

Assume and as an organization you diverted 100 tonne of food from landfill and 100 tonne of wood. Thus, you can approximately calculate monetized value of the waste diversion from landfill as ((100tonne*627 kg.CO2e) +(100tonne*828 kg.CO2e))0.25236,666 

Value Type: Activity What's this?
UN SDG Categories:
  • 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • 13. Climate Action
What's this?
PN06/20 Categories:
    • MAC 4.1 Additional environmental benefits
    • MAC 4.2 Influence environmental protection and improvement
    • Policy Outcome 4: Effective stewardship of the environment
    • Theme 3: Fighting Climate Change
What's this?

Evidence

Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.

We recommend seeking consent from participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.

Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music from creative interventions) can add more to the story, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.

In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.

More help

We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.

If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having and value you are creating.