Consume resources responsibly and reduce our waste
In Short
To cut our emissions from waste, we need to:
- Reduce our waste – through purchasing less and making our clothes and goods last longer by repairing, sharing, reusing and buying second hand
- Reduce food waste – by buying more carefully, storing food for best shelf life, eating up leftovers, sharing surplus and composting what remains
- Recycle – everything we can in the correct way to make the process work as efficiently as possible.
- Capture all the emissions from our waste facilities – where we still have emissions from waste, put in place measures to prevent those emissions from escaping into the atmosphere.
The Full Story
Each person in Plymouth creates 407 kilograms of waste on average every year. That’s the weight of 4 giant pandas for every single person! In the UK we produce more than five million metric tonnes of household food waste every year too. When we discard something in the bin, we also throw away the carbon emissions that have gone into making it. So a throwaway lifestyle is a high carbon lifestyle.
To cut down our carbon emissions from waste, we need to reduce the amount of waste we create in the first place, reuse as much as possible and recycle what’s left. The waste triangle shows us how we can have the most impact by prioritising waste reduction first.
The Waste Triangle
To reduce our waste, we can also think in a more circular way. In today’s world we take materials from the earth, make them into products and then throw them away again. In a circular economy, we can stop waste from being produced in the first place. We can design out waste at the start, make new products from recycled materials, repair and refurbish old products, keeping them in use for much longer and we can share products through rental and leasing services to get the most out of each and every product we need.
Our recycling rate for household waste is 36.7%. To get close to net zero, we need it to be more like 65%
(2020/21)
That means recycling all the materials you can at home and when out and about. But it’s essential to put them in the right bin so they end up in the right place.
We don’t measure our commercial waste so we need to work out how we can make this happen. We also need to capture all of the carbon emissions from our waste disposal routes.
Take action now
See ActionsINDIVIDUALS
Our actions matter. If each one of us reduced our waste by just 10 kilograms (kg) in a year, that would be 2.6 million kgs less waste across Plymouth! Will you take action to buy less, waste less and reuse more?
Key steps for Individuals
Consider how much waste you personally create and what it is. Keep a waste diary and see if there are any patterns.
When it comes to food:
- Are you buying too much? A bargain offer can mean you purchase more than you really need, costing you more in the long run
- Are you buying the wrong stuff? Food that your family won’t eat or that goes off too quickly like salad and fresh herbs
- Could you avoid the packaging? Many shops have refill options now
- Can you reduce your meat and dairy consumption? These are the most carbon intensive foods that we eat
- Choose to reuse – investing in reusable items such as a reusable coffee cup, water bottle, sandwich bag and wraps can save you money as well as the waste
Instead of throwing old clothes, toys, tools and furniture out:
- Have you explored repairing or upcycling it? Find your nearest Repair Cafe or clothes swap
- Could you offer them on freecycle, sell them through marketplaces, car boot sales or give them to charity?
When you need something new:
- Don’t buy new, borrow instead – Check out your local library of things or tool hire shop and so on
- When replacing or purchasing new products, buy refurbished, reclaimed or second hand goods. Failing that, choose those made with recycled content
- If nothing else, buy local to support your local economy and reduce product miles
Above all:
- Recycle everything you can – remind yourself what you can and can’t recycle
- Compost your food waste – and make free soil for the garden. It’s good for wildlife too
ORGANISATIONS
Organisations have significant influence over the city’s emissions from consumption and waste. Buying responsibly, minimising waste and maximising recycling opportunities, Plymouth’s organisations (large and small) have the power to make the difference.
Key Steps for All
- Avoid unnecessary purchases and in particular single-use products such as merchandise and disposables
- Implement procurement processes and policies to reflect the waste triangle (also known as the waste hierarchy) and maximise reuse and recycling opportunities
- Source goods and services locally as much as possible (to minimise the carbon footprint of transport)
- Develop sustainable procurement policies to favour products, services and suppliers with verifiable low carbon credentials, practices and operations
- Provide water refill facilities for customers and staff to restock reusable water bottles
- Offer comprehensive and clearly signposted recycling facilities to employees and customers
- Consider initiatives to encourage waste minimisation and recycling
- Ensure waste streams are separated to maximise recycling opportunities
- Only procure waste services that can prove the waste isn’t going to landfill
Key Steps for Manufacturers
- Use recycled materials for production where possible
- Design out waste and surplus in production processes
- Design to maximise repairability and products’ overall lifetime
- Design for end of life where products can be disassembled and source materials recovered, remanufactured or recycled
- Consider developing leasing and service models to keep products in use for as long as possible and secure recurring revenues
- Consider operating a ‘take-back’ scheme to ensure your products are dealt with properly at their end of life
Service Providers
Policy makers and service providers influence how well the city can reuse and recycle its materials with services that help people to share, reuse and recycle with ease.
Key steps for Service Providers and Policy Makers
- Support businesses to use the waste triangle in their organisations, including demonstrating the financial benefits that can be realised
- Develop local promotion campaigns with the aim of reducing waste generation (especially food waste) and to increase recycling rates
- Raise awareness of the opportunity and benefits from specifying reclaimed and recycled materials and products to support the growth of the circular economy
- Consider policy measures to incentivise door-step recycling of domestic waste.
- Investigate the potential for a city wide reuse partnership to increase opportunities and infrastructure such as reuse centres
- Support communities to run repair and reuse initiatives
- Support businesses to maximise food waste diversion opportunities where waste can be used in new product development, for composting and capture of bio methane
- Help find opportunities for unavoidable waste to be used as a resource by others
- Implement domestic food waste collection services
- Ensure biodegradable waste streams are dealt with in the least carbon intensive way
- Work with partners to identify processing gaps in wider South West recycling and treatment facilities and to make appropriate provision for particular materials where gaps are identified
- Proactively enforce air conditioning inspections to prevent unnecessary leakage of F-gases
- Support the development and deployment of Carbon Capture Storage technology at key sites of emissions in the city
- Deliver a reduction of methane and N20 emissions from our waste water infrastructure, and capture residual emissions
What progress has been made?
See progressWhat progress are we making?
We emitted 127,435 tonnes of CO2e from our waste in 2022, up by 150 the year before.
In 2022 and 2023, we increased our recycling rate to 36.7%, a big jump from 31.3% the year before, which means more materials that might have been sent to the energy from waste plant were recycled instead. We’re aiming to reach 65% recycling rate—if Wales can do it, so can Plymouth!
You’ll see from the graph that our emissions from waste went up in 2016 when the Devonport Energy from Waste plant started operating. This is a challenging situation. The waste hierarchy tells us that producing energy from our waste and using the heat to power local businesses is better for the environment than landfilling it. The best way to reduce our emissions definitively is to reduce our waste and recycle more.
N.B.
Plymouth’s waste emissions include all of the waste from our surrounding areas that is brought into the Plymouth.
Plymouth’s progress to Net Zero
Plymouth's Emissions Report 2025
See the report hereHow will we measure our progress?
We can also measure our progress in other ways that show how much waste we produce as well as what facilities there are to help us reduce our consumption.
Work is underway to establish baseline metrics. These metrics might include:
Waste Collected
Total household waste collected (incl per person)
Household Waste
Percentage of household waste that is sent for reuse, recycling or composting
Reuse Facilities
Number of reuse facilities
Commercial and Industrial Waste
Commercial and industrial waste; total arising, of which household-like waste and recycling rate.
Construction Waste
Construction, demolition and excavation waste; arising and recycling rate
See what’s happening across the city
Projects