Bradshaw: Review to consider role of weight-based targets

Mr Bradshaw was speaking at the Local Government Association as its “Greening Communities” initiative was launched. His comments came as the government is putting the final touches to its major consultation on the Waste Strategy review.

” Green waste – if it is not being recycled it would still go to landfill, and as biodegradable material it is the worst thing to go to landfill because of the methane it produces.“
– Ben Bradshaw
The minister was responding to concerns put to him by Brighton & Hove councillor Gill Mitchell, who said her council was rolling out multi-material recycling collections to 92,000 householders and saw green waste collections as detrimental to home composting and against the proximity principle of treating waste as near to source as possible.

The minister accepted the debate surrounding the issue of centralised composting collections, but while he said it would be reviewed in the waste strategy review, Mr Bradshaw indicated continued government support for green waste collections.

He said: “Green waste – if it is not being recycled it would still go to landfill, and as biodegradable material it is the worst thing to go to landfill because of the methane it produces in landfill.”

However, he did add that there was some feeling in government that council recycling targets could move on from the current weight-based situation. Mr Bradshaw said: “Local authorities' targets are based on weight at the moment, and this gives them the incentive to pick up weightier materials and not things like plastic. These are some of the things we would like to address with the current review.”

The LGA's Greening Communities initiative seeks stronger local leadership on the environment

Commercial
Mr Bradshaw also responded to questions concerning non-municipal waste, suggesting that as part of the waste strategy review “we accept that we will have to look at targets for commercial waste”.

The minister was told by the London borough of Greenwich that council enforcement officers are actively telling office workers not to recycle paper in nearby bring banks because recycling targets are for household waste only.

Charging
Mr Bradshaw also spoke on the issue of variable charging for household waste,
Greening Communities today, indicating that while it would be considered within the waste strategy review, the government still preferred to give incentives for recycling rather than forcing charges for non-recyclers.

He said: “If we can talk about encouraging and incentivising people rather than taxing them I think it is a more constructive way of achieving behavioural change.”

Greening Communities
The LGA's event saw the launch of the “Greening Communities” initiative, with which the Association is offering local authorities a toolkit to help them become take a stronger leadership on the environment. In particular, the initiative aims to put councils at the centre of the many organisations involved in improving the local environment.

On material resources and waste, the initiative suggests developing a material resources strategy to underpin land-use planning and says councils should work with local businesses, construction firms and farmers to establish recycling systems and link it up with the municipal waste stream to achieve high recycling rates.

Cllr Paula Baker, deputy chair of the LGA's environment board, said: “There are so many organisations involved in the management of the environment, it's become very fragmented. Local authorities have to take the key role in getting not only piecemeal improvements but a step change.”

Commenting on the initiative, Mr Bradshaw told local authorities: “We must join up to deliver this new “green sustainable development” led vision and to do it we need strong environmental leadership – nationally and locally. So my challenge to you is to keep pace with what is a citizen led agenda and work with us to deliver their aspirations and join the journey to clean and green.”