Herefordshire Council collects waste produced by all households in Herefordshire. It measures how much it collects and reports this to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK Government. Defra publishes this data. It is a measure of an important section of waste produced in Herefordshire. Waste produced by businesses is not included in this figure. The more waste households produce the more energy has been used unnecessarily and the more resources have been consumed and potentially lost to the county. The less waste produced by households the better.