Impact of Coronavirus on the Waste Sector in England: Private Waste Sector Survey

Purpose of survey

The Coronavirus pandemic has had a range of impacts on the waste sector. As we follow the lockdown easing plan, it is important that the government is able to understand the ongoing impacts of Coronavirus on the waste sector and where challenges may exist.

Defra has worked with industry groups to design this survey for the private waste sector in England to obtain high level information relating to business levels and activity through the collection, sorting, recycling, reprocessing, recovery, export, and disposal of waste in England. Any particular trends that emerge through this survey may identify areas that may require further exploration.

The results of this survey in and of themselves will not and should not be used to draw a definitive conclusion on the impacts of Coronavirus on the waste sector. This is a voluntary survey that will provide a representative snapshot of the experience of respondents only and should not be used to draw wider conclusions or inferences. The survey for the period from 7 - 11 June 2021 is available here.

Over the coming weeks Defra intend to repeat this questionnaire monthly to understand how the situation changes. The summary of responses received to previous iterations of the survey are posted below so that respondents can understand the picture they are helping to build.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Previous Survey

The results of the previous survey can be viewed here.

Notes on completing the survey

Please see the available PDF for a full list of the questions that will be asked in this survey.

You should provide data for England only.

This survey does not contain any text-entry boxes, please therefore choose the most appropriate answer available.

Participation in this survey is optional, however, please supply as complete and accurate data as possible.

This survey has been designed to be as straight-forward as possible. There are 10 top level questions, with relevant sub-questions that will appear if applicable to your business. Questions will ask for you to choose from a range of options. Whilst not all questions are mandatory, the more information you can provide will enhance the robustness of the data collected. 

Personal or Identifiable information

We are not collecting any personal or otherwise identifiable information through this survey. All responses will be anonymous.

Survey Period

This survey will be available from Monday 7 June until midnight Friday 11 April 2021.