Mr Meacher, addressing a room of waste management professionals at a seminar on the Landfill Directive, explained that a heavy workload led to the delay in the issuing of the Landfill regulations by his department. The seminar was organised by the Institute of Wastes Management, Environment Agency and the Environmental Services Association.
Mr Meacher said: “These regulations could have come in earlier, but the department is working to its limit.” Mr Meacher explained that the integration of a new department which includes the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) meant that the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) “was still dealing with foot and month at the end of last year”.
But he said that he wanted to start talks with industry as to whether it thinks the Landfill Directive targets are manageable and said that he does not want to have a repeat of the fridge fiasco.
After a three-hour grilling yesterday by the House of Commons Select Committee on fridges, Mr Meacher said: “We can't leave it to the last minute. If there are any large problems then the best thing to do is to face them know. I hope it is going to be manageable, but if it isn't, let's start a dialogue now.”
Mr Meacher accepted that meeting the Landfill Directive would not be easy: “The changes the directive brings will be a significant challenge to the UK. The directive offers us an opportunity to break the UK's traditional reliance on landfill.” And he said that DEFRA was willing to facilitate discussions about how the targets could be met. “We want to understand where problems will arise. The department will be open to discussions.”
Mr Meacher also urged the waste industry to come forward if they have problems with ambiguities in the wording of the Landfill Directive and said: “If there are problems with the Landfill Directive, in the way that it is written, these ambiguities need to be sorted out in Brussels.”
Blaming the European Commission for the fridge crisis which was caused by unclear legislation, the Environment Minster said that Brussels should make sure that the Landfill Directive is clear and not misunderstood. “They should not give it to us and let us sort it out,” he said. Mr Meacher explained that with regard to policy matters, uncertainties are a DEFRA problem, but he said that if there are problems with the directive then that is the fault of Brussels. “If there are issues which are not clear, I would like to have a report on them and then I will not only try and resolve them but take it up with Brussels.”
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