Facts About Recycling

by Craig Pryce May 28, 2026

Today, we all recycle much more than we used to, both within households and businesses. The way we throw away rubbish has changed in recent years, whether it's the line-up of coloured recycling wheelie bins outside your back door at home or the dedicated food waste and paper recycling bins in the office.

This all really started with the Environmental Protection Act 1990. It introduced requirements for domestic waste collections to separate recyclable materials such as glass, metal, plastic, paper, card, and garden waste from general waste, to help improve recycling rates.

More recently, the Simpler Recycling rules ramped this up in England. Under the scheme, all commercial and domestic collections should separate general waste, food and garden waste, paper and card, and dry recyclables to boost recycling across the nation.

This has made recycling a hot topic once again. That’s why we've compiled this list of interesting facts about recycling to highlight the importance of recycling for households and businesses alike.

10 interesting facts about recycling

Recycling facts and statistics change every year as the volumes and percentages of materials recycled fluctuate based on many factors. As a good starting point, these are our top 10 interesting facts about recycling to set the scene:

UK households recycled less than half (44.6%) of their waste in 2023.
Around three-quarters of UK packaging waste was recycled in 2023.
An average person in England generates less than a ton of landfill waste per year.
9 in 10 Brits recycle 'most' or 'everything they can'.
Brits send to landfill a billion items each year that could be recycled.
Plastic bottles can take half a millennium to decompose in landfill sites.
4 in 5 UK households miss at least two recyclable items per week.
3 in 10 items of clothing in UK households haven't been worn in the past year.
Recycling metal saves up to 95% of the energy used to make new metal.
UK recycling saves 3.5 million cars' worth of CO2 emissions each year.

UK recycling facts

UK recycling rates have improved over time, but they’ve plateaued in recent years. The good news is that the amount of waste sent to landfill continues to fall, with some 'residual waste' (non-recyclable household waste) being incinerated to generate energy instead.

These UK recycling statistics really highlight the scale of the country’s waste problem – and how UK recycling rates are reducing as much of a reliance on landfill sites.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra):

In 2019, English households created 64.4 million tonnes of residual waste:

45.5 million tonnes were sent to landfill
16.1 million tonnes were incinerated
2.8 million tonnes were exported for energy recovery outside of the UK

In 2024, English households created 58.4 million tonnes (-9.3%) of residual waste:

37.8 million tonnes (-16.8%) were sent to landfill
18.9 million tonnes (+16.9%) were incinerated
1.7 million tonnes (-39.6%) were exported

UK recycling rates (by country)

Across the same time period, the overall UK recycling rate fell. The table below shows waste and recycling in millions of tonnes for each UK country. Only Wales achieved a small increase in recycling rates between 2019 and 2023.

Year	Type	UK	England	Scotland	Wales	N Ireland
2019	Waste produced	26.4	22.1	2.3	1.2	0.8
	Amount recycled	12.2	10.1	1.0	0.7	0.4
	Recycling rate	46.0%	45.5%	43.5%	56.6%	50.6%
2023	Waste produced	25.9	21.7	2.2	1.2	0.8
	Amount recycled	11.6	9.5	0.9	0.7	0.4
	Recycling rate	44.6%	44.0%	42.1%	57.0%	50.2%

Recycling facts for different materials

The headline statistics about recycling show the scale of the challenge, but they don't tell us why recycling matters. These plastic, glass and paper recycling facts add to the bigger picture to help understand how each material can be reused in its own way.

These glass, paper, and plastic recycling facts spell out the benefits of separating household waste into recyclable streams.

Plastic recycling facts

Three fun facts about recycling plastic:

What colour is your plastic milk bottle cap? If you said red (skimmed), green (semi-skimmed) or blue (whole milk), you're probably wrong now. Since 2021, most plastic milk bottle caps are white or clear, which makes them easier to recycle.
Black plastic often can now be recycled thanks to scanners that can spot the black pigment and separate it out from other recyclable plastic.
UK plastic recycling statistics show that we only have enough capacity to recycle 23% of plastic packaging placed on the market each year.

Paper recycling facts

Unfold three recycling facts about paper:

Paper has the highest recycling rate in the UK, with 86.4% of clean paper and card finding its way into a recycling bin.
Recycled paper can make new paper five to six times before the fibres break down.
After that, it can be used for loft insulation, egg boxes, or even be used in road surfaces to prevent cracks and potholes.

Glass recycling facts

Three top recycling facts about glass:

Recycled glass saves 40% energy and 315kg of CO2 per tonne of glass.
Nearly a quarter of UK glass waste isn’t currently recycled.
Powdered glass mixed into compressed soil bricks could rival cement in low-carbon construction projects.

Fun facts about recycling for kids

UK households with kids send more recyclables to landfill than those without – an average of 1.8 items per week, compared with 1.6. Help your children understand the importance of recycling and recycle more with these fun recycling facts for kids:

We bin over 600,000 batteries every year from toys, TV remotes and other electronics. They weigh as much as 3,700 Tyrannosaurus Rexes!
UK families bin six million tonnes of food waste each year – that’s the same weight as about a million elephants.
The recycling from your kitchen at home could save enough energy to power your TV for six months.
Recycling just one aluminium Coca-Cola can saves enough energy to run your TV for three hours.
Do your parents use disposable coffee cups? Switching to a reusable cup saves about 150 paper cups each year.

We all make waste, especially when young, as kids outgrow old toys and clothes. It’s unavoidable, but it's really important to recycle as much as you can by putting it in the right-coloured recycling wheelie bin at home.

Improve your recycling statistics

Hopefully, these interesting facts about recycling have given you food for thought. If you want to take immediate action, you can find lots of advice around ways to reduce waste and boost recycling at home and work on our recycling blog.

Wheelie Bin Solutions supplies a huge range of domestic and commercial recycling bins to help you separate your recyclable waste streams, avoid cross-contamination, and improve your recycling efforts. These include:

Explore our fantastic range of bins to start separating and recycling waste within your home or business more responsibly.

Craig Pryce

With over 17 years of experience in the waste and recycling industry, Craig is passionate about making recycling easier and reducing the negative impact of litter. He has been the managing director of Wheelie Bin Solutions (WBS) since January 2016, and prides the company on his expert knowledge, top-quality products, and customer service. His proudest moment was when WBS supported the 2012 Olympic Games, working in partnership with Contenur UK to supply over 9000 bin containers to all Olympic venues. Craig is always keen to share his knowledge, so whether you need advice about the benefits of a wheelie bin lock, or ideas for alternative uses for your wheelie bin, Craig will ensure your recycling and waste disposal habits are gold medal worthy.