Target: no more than 10% of municipal waste sent to landfill by 2035 (Circular Economy Package, 2020). At or below the line counts as on track.

What it means: most waste that is not recycled is now burned to generate electricity rather than buried, after a landfill tax that rose steeply from the late 1990s. The target covers all municipal waste, including similar waste from businesses; the figure here covers what councils collect, the closest regular measure. Burning waste has its own environmental costs, so less landfill is not the same as less waste.

Source: Defra, local authority collected waste management 2024-25, table 3b; target from the Circular Economy Package.