Success for Welsh councils in meeting landfill targets

According to the Environment Agency for Wales, all 22 councils met their targets from October 2004 to March 2005, which required Welsh authorities to cut the amount of biodegradable municipal waste they sent to landfill.

” We recognise that there is still a major step change in performance that is needed to meet our recycling, composting and landfill diversion targets.“
– Richard Parry Hughes, Welsh LGA
The Welsh scheme began six months before the similar Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme in England. Unlike the English version, the Welsh scheme does not allow councils to trade their allowances with each other, forcing Welsh local authorities to stick to their ever-decreasing annual limits on landfill.

In the six months during 2004/05, Welsh councils managed to landfill about 100,000 tonnes less than the 550,000 tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste they were allowed to send to landfill. This represents 23% less landfilling than was allowed for that period.

Welsh Assembly minister for environment Carwyn Jones congratulated Welsh authorities, saying: “I am delighted that our landfill allowance scheme has got off to such a good start, though I know that all our local authority colleagues are working hard to make sure that they comply with future targets, too.”

During 2005/06, councils in Wales are allowed to landfill a total of 1.02 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste. This must fall to 710,000 tonnes during 2009/10.

2004/05
As had been intended by the setting of allowances during the early years of the landfill allowance scheme, most councils managed to keep comfortably inside their landfilling limits in the first six months of the scheme.

Newport, Gwynedd and Monmouthshire recorded the biggest cushion between their landfilling and the allowances they were allocated. The three councils landfilled respectively 32%, 31% and 30% less materials than their allowances permitted.

However, two councils that were closest to their limits – and will need a significant improvement in performance to meet future targets – were Bridgend, which landfilled just 163 tonnes (1%) less material than their allowances covered, and Ceredigion, which had just 168 tonnes of surplus allowances (2% of total).

Richard Parry Hughes, environmental spokesperson for the Welsh Local Government Association, said: “Once again the 22 local authorities have demonstrated their ability and commitment to meet challenging waste targets.

“We recognise that there is still a major step change in performance that is needed to meet our recycling, composting and landfill diversion targets and we will be working with our partners to ensure that Wales' waste management practices become exemplars of sustainable development,” he said.

Full landfill allowance results for Welsh local authorities from October 2004 to March 2005 were as follows:

Source: Environment Agency for Wales