The minister has also highlighted the latest set of muncipal waste figures which showed that municipal waste arisings have slowed to an annual increase of about 2.4% a year.
On commercial and industrial waste, he said: “Provisional Environment Agency data, based on returns from licensed landfill sites, suggest that the amount of industrial and commercial waste going to landfill may have decreased by about 8% between 1998–99 and 2000–01. The Environment Agency is carrying out a new survey and we should get the results in 2004. We shall see then which way the trend is going. However, the trend on the commercial side is encouraging.”
The minister said the slowing in the rate of increase in municipal waste is “no cause for doing cartwheels down the street,” but that “a bit of progress” is being made.
Mr Morley was speaking in a debate in the House of Commons about the Waste and Emissions Trading Bill, where he said: “We have an awful long way to go, but we are committed to making progress. Waste prevention cuts across cuts across a number of disciplines, and there are several Government programmes that I have not mentioned, such as waste minimisation, which is already covered in “Waste Strategy 2000”.
He was responding to new clauses for the Bill proposed by Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker who wanted additional measures on minimisation included in it.
Mr Baker said: “The way in which the waste hierarchy has been delivered is upside down, although the hierarchy is the right way up on paper. There are insufficient measures to address minimisation. The waste stream is increasing by 3% a year and nothing that I heard from the Minister convinced me that that trend will change.”
The Minister responded saying that the clauses were unnecessary because measures were in place for strategies on minimisation and they were turned down in a vote during the debate.
Variable charging
During the discussion on minimisation, Mr Morley commented on charging issues for householders. He said: “There may well be a case for variable charging, and we are considering how it could possibly be applied. We are talking to the Local Government Association about how that could be done. However, there are downsides to variable charging … and we must address the possible disadvantages as well because, if we introduce variable charging, we want the policy to be successful.
“My personal concept of variable charging is not to impose additional charges on people who are already paying for waste disposal through their council tax, but there could be discounts for people who change their behaviour. We have to consider how that could be put in place, but we are interested and we are trying to address the issue.”
Landfill Tax
Mr Morley also told MPs present during the debate on the Bill that the Landfill Tax has had an impact on commercial and industrial waste. He added: “The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 have also had an effect on commercial waste. Those policies are not lying dormant. The Chancellor announced in the Budget that the landfill tax escalator would increase to a minimum of 3 per tonne from 2005–06, increasing the tax to 35 per tonne no later than 2010–11. The packaging directive is also under review.”
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