The Environmental Services Association (ESA) has published a detailed report on the waste and resources sector to aid hundreds of new MPs entering Parliament post-election.
The body, which represents firms across the industry, produced the UK Recycling and Waste Treatment Market Overview with consultancy Tolvik.
The report estimates the turnover of the sector at £23.5bn in 2021, almost a third of which is thought to have been from reprocessing materials.
Within this, £5bn is categorised as metal recycling, with packaging recovery the next biggest chunk at £1.2bn.
The waste industry employed 147,000 people in 2021, according to the document, its highest level since the pre-pandemic years of 2017 and 2018.
Meanwhile the number of businesses engaged in the sector had risen steadily to almost 7,000 by 2021, with the number of sites passing 9,000.
ESA executive director Jacob Hayler said: “Behind the valuable and visible frontline services lies a large, intricate and symbiotic network of organisations, infrastructure, data, policy and regulation that is forever shifting in response to societal and technological change.
“This report aims to provide an accessible snapshot of the sector – helping to bring those less familiar with its structure quickly up to speed.”
