A report has been published by the UK Government‘‘s Department of Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) which presents the findings of a study conducted by Enviros Consulting in conjunction with Economics for the Environment Consultancy (EFTEC) to provide an assessment of the external costs and benefits to health and the environment of waste management options valued in monetary terms.

The Prime Minister‘‘s Strategy Unit, in its report "Waste not, Want not", recommended that an independent body should bring together the literature and evidence on the relative health and environmental effects of all the different waste management options; relative both to each other and to other activities affecting health and the environment. The Government made a commitment in the pre-budget report 2002 to commission a review.

This has been a two stage process. The first stage has been an assessment of the scientific evidence of the physical health and environmental effects of options to manage municipal solid waste and similar wastes, and a report was published in May 2004.

The new economic study completes the second stage. This report presents the findings of a study conducted by Enviros Consulting in conjunction with Economics for the Environment Consultancy (EFTEC) to provide an assessment of the external costs and benefits to health and the environment of waste management options valued in monetary terms