Waste Data Interrogator: UK Facility Waste Flows

Around 6,000 regulated UK waste management facilities report annual data on waste received and transferred since 2006. The Environment Agency uses this data to monitor compliance and assist in planning for new facilities, with some site details withheld for commercial confidentiality. Data is public register information, aggregated for national and local authority use.

Use Cases

• Monitoring regulatory compliance based on reported waste quantities and types.
• Planning for new waste facilities using historical waste flow data.
• Tracking progress against statutory waste management targets.
• Aggregating national waste figures while protecting commercially sensitive site details.

Strengths

• Covers a consistent, large-scale panel of around 6,000 regulated sites annually.
• Provides a long-term time series, with data available in an interrogatable format since 2006.
• Serves as official public register information, used by multiple government bodies for planning and monitoring.

Limitations

• Key metadata is missing across all sources, including specific column names, exact row counts, and license details.
• Site details are omitted for operators who have claimed commercial confidentiality, limiting traceability.
• Data does not include details of the original waste producers.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency (UK)

Collection Method

Mandatory annual returns from operators of regulated waste management facilities.

Time Range

2007 onward (dataset title is 2007, but data provided since 2006).

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-04-17, but the underlying data is calendar-year based and the attribution copyright is 2016.

Geography

United Kingdom