Skip to Content

City Of York Council

environment and planning header

York's waste strategy

Waste - a growing problem in York

York residents produce about 100,000 tonnes of rubbish each year. This figure is growing by about 3% a year. By 2025 it's estimated there will be twice as much waste to deal with.

With dwindling resources and rapidly filling landfill sites the government has set targets for each local authority to increase the amount of rubbish that is recycled and composted. We are urging York residents to Rethink Rubbish.

In this section:

  • York's waste strategy
    We have developed a strategy with North Yorkshire County Council and the District Councils within North Yorkshire for dealing with the area's rubbish for the next 20 to 25 years
  • Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
    No matter how much people reduce, reuse and recycle - and people living in York are amongst the best in the country at this - there is still household waste which needs to be managed. This is called residual waste. You can find out more about our strategy for 'Making rubbish work' by turning it into a valuable resource (energy) on the Waste PFI page, together with a list of frequently asked questions