The waste sector plays a vital role in public health and environmental protection. It includes the collection, treatment, recycling, and disposal of household, commercial, industrial, and hazardous waste. There has been a recent shift in the sector with a greater focus on recycling and reusing materials and avoiding landfills.
The UK has made significant progress in reducing landfill use and increasing recycling rates over the past two decades. Landfill has declined dramatically due to landfill taxes, environmental regulations, and investment in alternative waste management solutions such as mechanical-biological treatment, anaerobic digestion, incineration with energy recovery, and materials recovery facilities (MRFs).