ABSTRACT
Introduction In 2007 the UK buried approximately 73 million tonnes of waste from all sources in landfill sites, which includes household waste of around 320kg per person. This compares with 100 million tonnes in 2000, when only about 12 per cent of household (municipal) waste was recycled. The proportion recycled in 2007-2008 was 34 per cent (DEFRA, 2009). The US has been recycling similar percentages of municipal waste since the mid 1990s but the per capita waste that was sent to landfill in 2005 was around 780kg.1
