Resources

This document contains an overview of statistics on food surplus and waste in the UK.

This report provides estimates of the quantity and types of food and drink waste generated by UK households in 2021/22. The report also looks at the reasons for discarding, the financial cost, and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to wasted food. 

Welcome to the WRAP Food Trends & KPI Survey, a bi-annual exploration of UK households' attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours related to food waste. As the longest-running survey of its kind, it offers a unique lens into the ever-evolving landscape of food waste in the UK.

The 2022 Plastics Market Situation report updates on the amount of plastic packaging Placed On the Market (POM), collection rates, recycling rates, and provides an update on key developments over the past few years highlighting the challenges and opportunities ahead.

• Fall in plastic packaging placed on the market
• Movement away from rigid plastic packaging towards lightweight and flexible plastics in the consumer sector.  
• Domestic recycling of plastic has increased to 53%.
• Planned recycling capacity increases will be a boost but will still fall well below current levels of plastic packaging consumption.  
• Collection rates are improving for plastic packaging with more flexible plastic, rigid plastics, plastic bottles and PTTs being collected at kerbside. 

The Recycling Tracker is an annual survey of UK households that gathers evidence on recycling attitudes, knowledge, and behaviour. ​It is the largest and longest running of its kind, having been undertaken by WRAP since 2004. ​

The survey uses boost sampling in Northern Ireland to provide a robust, enhanced sample of Northern Irish citizens. Fieldwork was undertaken online, from 20 - 30 March 2023. A total of 5,343 interviews were undertaken UK-wide with adults who have responsibility for dealing with the rubbish and recycling in the home. This included a sample of 563 adults in Northern Ireland. The sample matches the known profile of the Northern Ireland population, with quotas set on age, gender, region and social grade.

The Recycling Tracker is an annual survey of UK households that gathers evidence on recycling attitudes, knowledge, and behaviour. ​It is the largest and longest running of its kind, having been undertaken by WRAP since 2004. ​

Fieldwork was undertaken online from 20 - 30 March 2023. A total of 5,343 interviews were undertaken with UK adults who have responsibility for dealing with the rubbish and recycling in the home. The sample matches the known profile of the population, with quotas set on age, gender, region, social class, and ethnicity.

In November 2021, 65 stakeholders and partners from across all sectors of the UK food industry and water stewardship community made a commitment to collectively address water risk in the food and drink supply chain across the world and joined WRAP’s Water Roadmap, embarking on a collective journey to address water risk in our food & drink supply chain. 

This report tracks progress and gives an update on achievements, whilst outlining the urgent action needed to not only deliver on targets but create a sustainable supply chain and prioritise climate action.

Our annual UK Surplus Food Redistribution data indicates solid progress in 2022 with approximately 170,000 tonnes of surplus food being received by redistribution organisations, equating to 400 million meals with a value of more than £590 million.

This guide is a summary of the top actions from best practice guidance developed by WRAP, Defra, and the FSA for each highly wasted food category that industry can adopt to reduce household food waste.