Currently the UK landfills 27,000,000 tonnes a year of municipal solid waste with 60% turning out to be biodegradable.[9] The amount of biodegradable material in landfills will be greatly reduced by composting, with the effect that less landfill gas and leachate will be produced. Although not all biodegradable material is suitable for composting, it is a start in getting waste management under control in the UK. Damage to the environment due to poor waste management is something that can be avoided by implementing techniques through the principle of best practicable environment option (BPEO).[10] Waste minimization, re-use, recycling, and recovery techniques are all ways to reduce the need for landfill sites within this principle.[10] Recycling/reuse together with composting have become the dominant methods of waste management in the UK, accounting for 42.2% of the total MSW.[11] In 2012, 13.1 million tonnes of MSW was composted or recycled in the United Kingdom, which represented an increase of 27.3% since 2002.[11]