Newcastle Waste Strategy 2019-2030

The Newcastle Waste Strategy approved by Cabinet in March 2019 and has been revised, updated, and agreed at Cabinet in July 2024.

Revised 2024 - Newcastle Waste Strategy 2019-2030

The strategy sets out the council’s vision, ambitions and desired outcomes for waste arising in and collected by the city; it provides high level strategic objectives under a range of themes and an action plan for the next five years.

We live in a world that is producing more and more waste, and the ambition for Newcastle is that we can become a model of excellence. We want to inspire individuals and organisations to take responsibility for changing their behaviour relating to waste and to be proud of their communities and the environment we live in.  

The population of Newcastle has increased from 280,200 in 2011 to 300,100 in 2021.  As a vibrant city, the number of households is going to increase further. People’s behaviours change as society moves forward.  There are changes in working patterns, technological advances, and shifts in shopping habits.  All of these affect the amount of waste produced.  We need to be able to manage any additional waste in a sustainable way.

Newcastle last year produced 136,500 tonnes of waste from eight million collections to almost 138,000 homes.  Taking a transformational approach to waste management is and will continue to be critical to ensuring the city operates within sustainable and financial limits.   

We want Newcastle to produce less rubbish.   As a society we need to think every day about the things we buy, the items we discard, and how things can be kept in use.  Any waste that is then produced should not be a problem to disposed of, but valued as a resource, a resource that can be reused by others, recycled or utilised in energy recovery or manufacturing.

We all need to get the ‘right waste to the right place’.

For a copy of the original 2019 strategy see here:  Newcastle Waste Strategy 2019-2030