Greenhouse gas emissions produced by the waste sector fell by 4% between 2023 and 2024.
Landfill accounted for 55% of total waste emissions in 2024, while wastewater accounted for 34%, statistics released by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) show.
The waste sector consists of emissions from the treatment and disposal of solid and liquid waste, including from waste disposed at landfill sites, composting, waste incineration – except when energy is recovered – and the treatment of wastewater.
The sector is estimated to have been responsible for around 6% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK in 2024, a 61% decrease since 1990. Methane emissions accounted for 77% of all emissions.
The statistics show emissions have fallen across all sectors since 1990, with falls in electricity supply, industry, fuel supply and waste outpacing those in domestic transport, agriculture, and buildings and product uses.
In 2024, 30% of net greenhouse gas emissions in the UK were from domestic transport, 22% from buildings and product uses, 12% from agriculture, 12% from industry, 10% from electricity supply, and 8% from fuel supply.
This decrease is the result of a combination of factors, including improvements in the standards of landfilling, changes to the types of waste going to landfill (such as reducing the amount of biodegradable waste), and an increase in the amount of landfill gas being used for energy.
DESNZ says the fall in waste sector emissions between 2023 and 2024 is ‘largely due’ to an 8% fall in emissions from landfill sites.
Other factors include the improvements in the standards of landfilling, changes to the types of waste going to landfill, such as reducing the amount of biodegradable waste, and an increase in the amount of landfill gas being used for energy.
In 2024, there was a 16% decrease in emissions from the electricity supply sector between 2023 and 2024, largely due to lower gas and coal use in UK power stations.
75% of electricity supply emissions in the electricity supply sector were from the combustion of gas, and 19% from municipal solid waste.