Ruddock: Infrastructure in place to meet 2010 landfill target

And, responding to a question from Tory MP Anne McIntosh, Mrs Ruddock said plants with a capacity to process an extra 10.3 million tonnes of waste material are now scheduled to come online from 2008 onwards.

However, the minister for waste and recycling conceded that more waste treatment plants will be needed to hit European targets beyond 2010.

She said: “While we are confident that we have enough infrastructure in place to meet our 2010 EU Landfill Directive target, current estimates suggest that we still require an increase in diversion capacity to allow us to meet the 2013 and 2020 targets.”

Since its new English waste strategy came out in May, Defra has been placing a greater emphasis on diverting residual waste from landfill, including an increased use of the PFI funding system for local authority infrastructure.

The minister said the Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme (WIDP) was monitoring existing and planned residual treatment capacity “to ensure that resources are applied in the most effective manner”.

Capacity

Mrs Ruddock said: “We are currently aware of 81 plants across England (covering a range of treatment and disposal technologies) that are scheduled to become operational from 2008 onwards. These will potentially provide the capacity to treat an extra 10.3 million tonnes of municipal waste.

“With the ongoing engagement WIDP is undertaking with authorities, the combination of authorities' ambitions and the utilisation of the £2 billion Private Finance Initiative credits recently announced in the comprehensive spending review, the government believes sufficient infrastructure can be delivered to meet our obligations under the Landfill Directive,” the minister added.

Defra is currently considering a national campaign to win public support for the new residual waste treatment infrastructure needed to meet the Directive targets set by Europe (see letsrecycle.com story).

Nevertheless, commenting on the infrastructure needed, Mrs Ruddock said it would need to “help to facilitate an increase in both recycling and composting and diversion from landfill”. She added: “The number of facilities required will depend upon the nature of waste delivery authority procurements, the technology selected and the size of individual plants.”

In her reply to the MP for the Vale of York, Mrs Ruddock concluded by stressing the need for regional and local planning strategies to make clear the types and scales of waste treatment facilities needed – and for local plans to identify “specific and suitable sites”.

Planning Bill

The Planning Bill, which was debated on Monday, is seeking to reform the planning system for infrastructure projects that are “nationally significant”. During the debate, MPs examined the proposals to appoint an independent planning commission to make decisions on major plants.

These nationally significant infrastructure projects were described by the Secretary of State for communities and local government, Hazel Blears as including “ports and harbours, and projects to do with aviation, energy, water, waste water, and waste disposal”.

In the waste sector, this is actually only likely to affect incinerators generating more than 50MW of power – of which only a handful of proposed plants will be in a position to do.

Nevertheless, MPs including Sir Paul Beresford of Mole Valley and Paul Truswell of Pudsey raised concerns about the public scrutiny of incineration projects in their areas.

Tory MP Eric Pickles said his party would prefer Parliament to have a say on major plants rather than appointees. “Matters of vital national importance, such as airports, nuclear power stations, other types of power stations, the disposal of waste plants and major transport links, should be decided by the House,” he said.

Secretary of State for local government and communities Hazel Blears argued that an independent commission would be more accountable than having a single person – the Secretary of State – take a decision.