An anti-incinerator group is threatening legal action against the Environment Agency, claiming it has failed to enforce the waste hierarchy over Cornwall councils lack of dedicated treatment facilities for food waste.
The Cornish Waste Forum (CWF) wrote to the Environment Agency last month warning that it is proposing to pursue a judicial review against the Agency. The forum claims that the Agency has failed to properly scrutinise Cornwall councils plans for the treatment of food waste in the county under its 30-year PFI contract with SITA UK.
The Forum argues that as Cornwall has no plans in place for separate treatment of food waste, the councils waste strategy is unlawful, and should have been challenged by the Environment Agency.
Under plans set out by the council as part of the deal, the bulk of the countys non-recyclable waste will be sent to the 240,000 tonne-a-year capacity Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre which is due to be operational by 2016.
CWF had failed at previous attempts to prevent the facility from going ahead, after losing its legal challenge against the facility in March 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Food waste
The Forum considers that as no plans exist for composting or anaerobic digestion of food waste the only option is disposal via energy recovery. It wants the Agency to investigate whether by taking this approach, the council is compliant with the waste hierarchy, a legal requirement under the Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2011. The anti-incinerator group also argues that the Agency had failed to consider the matter in sufficient detail.
In previous correspondence to the group, South West Environment Agency director Dr Richard Cresswell had stated that the organisation did not intend to take enforcement action against Cornwall council, as infrastructure planning did not fall within its remit.
According to the Agency, the law only required the council to apply the hierarchy on the transfer of waste as collected.
Therefore, it stated that there could be no legal requirement arising from the hierarchy for the council to introduce a separate collection of food waste, or to build facilities to treat such waste, and it was right to apply the hierarchy to mixed waste as an undivided stream.
The Forum claims that if the Agencys interpretation of the law is correct, the waste hierarchy means only that it is unlawful to burn or landfill recycling that has already been separated. And, according to the group, as the main force of the waste hierarchy is strategic it should be applied at an early stage in any waste system decision process.
Following the threat of legal action from the Forum, for which the Agency had been given a December 11 deadline to consider re-assessing the councils plans, the Environment Agency has asked for an additional two weeks to look at the Forums case.
An Environment Agency spokesman told letsrecycle.com: The Environment Agency has received a letter from Cornwall Waste Forum asking to reconsider its interpretation and application of the waste hierarchy in relation to waste food collection in Cornwall.
The Agency is fully considering the contents of the letter and will be in touch with Cornwall Waste Forum in due course.
When contacted by letsrecycle.com, Cornwall council and SITA UK declined to comment.
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