What is biodegradable waste?
2.4 We also need to establish the type and amount of municipal waste considered to be “biodegradable”. The Directive defines biodegradable waste as “waste that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food and garden waste, and paper and paperboard”. 2.5 The data in Table 1 are derived from the Environment Agency s National Household Waste Analysis project. This suggests that about 60% of all municipal waste is biodegradable, and this figure has been used as a working assumption by the consultants who developed the options for DETR (see paragraph 3.1) and in this paper. The actual biodegradable content of municipal waste will vary at the local level depending upon the characteristics of the local population and whether any biodegradable or non-biodegradable components of the waste stream have been removed at source (eg paper or glass) This may need to be taken into account when refining the chosen instrument to limit landfill.
