Biodegradable municipal waste to landfill

EPA waste data release, 02 April 2025

The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) sets targets for the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfill. BMW comprises those elements of the municipal waste that will rot or degrade biologically, including food waste, garden and parks waste, waste paper and cardboard. The diversion of BMW helps to reduce odour nuisance and greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, and lessens landfill aftercare burden.

Key trends 

• In 2023, 169,864 tonnes of BMW waste were disposed of at landfill, representing 32.6% of all municipal waste sent to landfill.

• Chart 1 above shows a time series of BMW disposed at landfill values from 2010 to 2023, including revised figures for 2021 and 2022.
• The chart shows that disposal to BMW to landfill was on a largely downward trend from a peak of 860,000 tonnes in 2010 to 104,000 tonnes in 2020.
• However, the data now shows that the quantity of BMW disposed of at landfill has increased by 65,000 tonnes or 63% since 2020.
• The majority of these increases since 2020 are due to increased levels of skip fines being disposed of at landfill which have a BMW factor of 40%. This may be due to a reduced market for this waste type at facilities in Northern Ireland.
• Despite these recent increases, the current rate of BMW disposed of at landfill is still well within Ireland’s current limit of 427,000 tonnes which is calculated based on the tonnage of BMW landfilled in 1995 (1.3 million tonnes).
• The general decline in BMW to landfill is mirrored in steady rise in the quantity of municipal biowaste treated by composting/anaerobic digestion in Ireland which has increased significantly since 2010 with the introduction of the Food Waste Regulations and the associated roll-out of brown bins to commercial premises and households (see Composting and Anaerobic Digestion ). Under the revised Waste Framework Directive ((EU) 2018/851), the separate collection of biowaste is now mandatory since the end of 2023. This requirement is likely to result in a further decline in the BMW content of municipal waste landfilled in Ireland from reference year 2024 onwards.