Evaluating the progress of the UK’s Material Recycling Facilities: A mini review
Abstract
Over the last 15 years, the UK has made great strides in reducing the amount of waste being sent to landfill while also increasing the amount of waste being recycled. The key drivers for this change are the European Union Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) and the UK Landfill Tax. However, also playing their part are the growing numbers of Material Recycling Facilities (MRFs), which process recyclables. This mini review evaluates the current state of MRFs in the UK, through extensive secondary research, and detailed primary data analysis focussing on MRFs located in South-East England, UK. This study also explores technologies that aim to generate energy from waste, including Waste-to-Energy (WtE) and Refuse-derived Fuel (RDF) facilities. These facilities can have a huge appetite for waste, which can be detrimental to recycling efforts as some of the waste being sent there should be recycled. It was found that the waste sent to a typical UK MRF would recycle around 92% of materials while 6% was sent to energy recovery and the remaining 2% ended up in landfill. Therefore, the total estimated rejected or non-compliance materials from MRFs are around 8%. A key recommendation from this study is to adopt a strategy to combine MRFs with a form of energy generation, such as WtE or RDF. This integrated approach would ensure any residual waste arising from the recycling process can be used as a sustainable fuel, while also increasing the recycling rates.
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MRF technology is limited to recycling specific types of materials, chiefly to facilitate the processing of end-of-life single-use and disposable FMCGs, as well as to produce an end product cost-effectively.
“MRF technology is limited to recycling specific types of materials, chiefly to facilitate the processing of end-of-life single-use and disposable FMCGs, as well as to produce an end product cost-effectively [74].”
From Characterisation and environmental value proposition of reuse models for fast-moving consumer goods: reusable packaging and products (2021) · cites this paper as [74]
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Expanding plastics recycling technologies: chemical aspects, technology status and challenges
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- Authors
- Ali, M., & Courtenay, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Portsmouth (GB)
- ORCID
- Ali, Muhammad
- Venue
- Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-11-12
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1149-1157
- ISSN
- 0734-242X (ISSN-L)
- 1096-3669
- OpenAlex
- W2115410988
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 0.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Municipal Solid Waste Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Waste Management and Recycling
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
- Keywords
- recycling rate, landfill reduction, EU Landfill Directive, landfill tax, waste-to-energy, refuse-derived fuel, South East England
- MeSH terms
- United Kingdom, Recycling, Waste Disposal Facilities
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