According to a statement from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the bill will require local authorities to progressively reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill. This will be achieved by setting local authorities tradable landfill allowances – so that councils with low landfill rates can sell their unused landfill allowances to councils with high landfill rates.
The Department explained: “This system of tradable allowances signals an innovative approach to delivering effective, efficient regulations in the area of waste.”
The bill is as one of the most important pieces of legislation covering the landfilling ot biodegradable waste for many years and will have far reaching implications for local authorities.
However, there has already been some murmurings of criticism for the bill in the industry, since it is only targeting biodegradable municipal waste rather than all municipal waste going to landfill.
DEFRA also said:
- The bill would put in place an allowance scheme which requires that limits be set on the amount of biodegradable municipal waste which may be sent to landfill.
- These allowances may be tradable between authorities allowing the UK as a whole to share the burden of meeting the Landfill Directive.
- The bill requires each of the territories of the UK to produce a strategy to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste which may be sent to landfill.
- The bill places on a statutory footing penalties for companies which miss their emissions targets under the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme.
- The bill enables the provision of penalties within future emissions trading schemes to ensure that the market for these work effectively.
Biodegradable waste is waste which will degrade either in the presence of air or without air. It comprises waste such as card, paper, food and green waste and natural textiles. As this waste degrades in landfill it produces methane which is a powerful greenhouse gas.
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