Defra has published its latest annual progress report on England’s Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, alongside updated delivery plans for the Environment Act targets and the government’s response to the Office for Environmental Protection’s latest assessment. Waste reduction emerged as the weakest area in the plan. Goal 5 - which covers resources, waste and the circular economy - had 15 per cent of its supporting actions rated off track, the highest proportion of any goal in the EIP.

The progress report is the first to assess delivery against the restructured EIP, which replaced EIP 2023 in December 2025.

Latest residual waste figures

England produced an estimated 535kg of residual waste per person in 2024 - down 6.9 per cent from the 2019 baseline of 575kg, but still nearly double the 287kg per capita the country must reach by 2042 under the Environment Act. In seven years, barely a fourteenth of the required reduction has been delivered.

An interim target of 437kg per capita by December 2030 was supposed to mark the halfway point, but even that requires cutting a further 100kg per person in under four and a half years - more than three times the pace of progress so far. The targets themselves are unchanged from those originally set in the previous EIP; they were simply pushed back to 2030 after the government failed to meet them first time round.

Material-specific interim targets for 2030 illustrate the scale of change expected: a 50 per cent cut in food waste, 45 per cent for plastic and 48 per cent for glass.

Collection and packaging reforms carry the load

Defra’s residual waste reduction delivery plan places consierable weight on the three major collection and packaging reforms. Simpler Recycling, extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are expected to deliver between 82 and 100 per cent of the reductions needed to meet the 2030 interim targets, and over a third of the reduction required for the 2042 statutory target.

Simpler Recycling for businesses (excluding micro firms) was introduced in March 2025, with pEPR phased in from April 2025. The government committed 1.1 billion pounds to improve local recycling services across England in July 2025, and Simpler Recycling for households - including mandatory weekly food waste collections - took effect in March 2026.

PackUK, the scheme administrator for pEPR, has been instructed to use its regulatory powers to ensure funds paid to local authorities are spent only on waste collection, recycling and disposal activities. DRS for drinks containers currently remains on track for October 2027, covering single-use PET plastic, steel and aluminium containers from 150ml to three litres.

Simpler Recycling for micro businesses is due by March 2027. Collection of plastic films and flexible packaging, originally due by the same date, has been deferred to April 2030 after concerns over the lack of established end markets and sorting infrastructure. Defra said it will commission research into the investment needed to reprocess up to 400,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic packaging annually, with legislation for the revised date expected in autumn 2026.

Biodegradable waste actions off track

The two areas rated off track both relate to biodegradable waste going to landfill. The government committed in EIP 2025 to near-eliminating biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from 2028, with a parallel commitment for non-municipal biodegradable waste. No ban is currently proposed.

Instead, the government is working with Treasury to ensure landfill tax continues to encourage diversion, and is considering how the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme into energy from waste may influence greater diversion of biodegradable material from landfill. Mandatory food waste collections and improved recyclability through the packaging reforms are positioned as first steps, but the 2028 timeline appears increasingly difficult to meet.

Circular Economy Growth Plan in political limbo

The collection and packaging reforms alone are not enough to meet the 2042 target. Additional policies from the Circular Economy Growth Plan for England are supposed to close the gap - but the plan remains unpublished. The progress report says it will appear “shortly”, without giving a date, with few in the industry now expecting this to see the light of day.

The plan, developed by a taskforce chaired by Andrew Morlet, former chief executive of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, was intended to set out sector-specific roadmaps for agri-food, chemicals and plastics, construction, textiles, transport and electrical and electronic equipment.

Its prospects have been complicated by the Labour leadership transition, with Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds widely expected to be replaced. Industry figures have expressed concern that the plan may not survive the change in leadership, with more than 50 businesses and organisations writing to government in April 2026 to press for its release.

Defra’s own modelling shows the collection and packaging reforms can meet the interim targets, but acknowledges further policies are needed to reach 287kg per capita by 2042. Without the Circular Economy Growth Plan, those policies have no framework.

OEP assessment

The OEP’s fourth statutory progress report, published in January 2026 and covering April 2024 to March 2025, found the government remains off track to meet its environmental commitments. Defra’s response, published alongside the progress report, sets out how it is addressing the OEP’s recommendations on waste, resources and the broader EIP framework.

Illegal waste sites in England increased to 451 in 2024-25, up from 344 a year earlier, while fly-tipping incidents rose nine per cent to 1.26 million.

A digital waste tracking service has entered its first phase of operation, and legislation reforming the carriers, brokers and dealers regime was laid in May 2026.

The Resources and Waste Policy Programme Evaluation, covering all three collection and packaging reforms, is due to report in March 2029.