Waste Management & Recycling: business succession in the UK

Name: Waste Management & Recycling business succession in the UK
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

2,756 UK waste management & recycling companies — 35.8% — have a director aged 60 or over.

3.3 points above the all-trades average of 32.5%.

Companies measured7,709

Director aged 60+2,756

Exposure rate35.8%

Companies House register·Measured base 3,475,770·Data as at 13 August 2026·Full methodology

7,709

Companies measured

2,756

With a director 60+

908

With a director 70+

35.8%

Exposure rate

Of the 2,756 with a director over 60, 328 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Waste Management & Recycling by region

Region	Companies	60+	Rate
Wales	395	171	43.3%
West Midlands	734	297	40.5%
South West	593	234	39.5%
Scotland	387	150	38.8%
Yorkshire & The Humber	660	252	38.2%
North West	938	357	38.1%
East of England	734	272	37.1%
East Midlands	456	169	37.1%
South East	947	333	35.2%
London	1,414	354	25%

Combinations with fewer than 250 measured companies are not listed separately. They are still counted in every total on this page.

Next step

This page counts director ages across the whole register. If you are looking to buy rather than to research, our Facility & Field Services pages go further: we score each company on business quality and exit timing, and shortlist the ones worth approaching.

See UK Facility & Field Services →

Part of the UK Business Succession Index.

Cite this page

These figures are free to quote and reproduce, including in commercial work, with attribution to ExitRadar and a link to this page.

ExitRadar, "Waste Management & Recycling: business succession in the UK", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/svc-waste/

Need a cut that is not published here — a different trade grouping, a finer geography, or the underlying distribution? Get in touch and we will usually provide it. Methodology.

Method. Figures cover the 3,475,770 active UK companies where Companies House records an age bracket for at least one serving director — 93.8% of the 3,706,712 companies on the active register. A company counts as succession-exposed when its oldest serving director is 60 or over — not the board average, which would hide a 70-year-old founder sitting alongside younger co-directors. The business-quality figure covers only the subset our model assesses — see the methodology for why that is far smaller than the number with filed accounts. Data as at 13 August 2026; updated quarterly, next update October 2026. Full methodology.