The directive, which could be in place by 2006 and is also known as the biowaste directive, is currently in its early stages of formulation: the second draft a working document on the Biological Treatment of Biowaste. But one of the key suggestions of this paper is that all domestic biodegradable waste (biowaste) is separated from residual waste before collection.
“The implications are vast,” policy officer Andy Doran told a LARAC open meeting yesterday in Birmingham. “Nobody knows yet which proposals will stay in the directive and which will be left out, but there is a debate to be had.”
The working document says that, “where they are not already in place,” separate collection schemes should be set up to collect biowaste – including paper, card, green and kitchen waste – from households. These schemes would serve all urban areas with more than 100,000 inhabitants within three years of the directive becoming law in the UK and all areas with more than 2,000 inhabitants after five years.
“Fundamentally different”
“The working document on biowaste proposes a fundamentally different way of collecting it which could cause us problems,” Mr Doran told letsrecycle.com. Enforcing such rules on UK householders would be costly and difficult, he said. “If these proposals were implemented tomorrow, we would be in trouble. The infrastructure and resources aren't there to implement separate collection.”
“The technology exists in the UK to separate materials after collection, but if the directive specifies that they must be separately collected, how do we require the public to do that? We don't have the legislative powers to enforce that.”
And it is likely that local authorities would bear the brunt of such measures because there is no obvious producer responsibility element which could help to provide funds to boost the collection infrastructure.
Some other European Union countries already successfully practice source separation of biowaste. Italy and Austria lead the field with compostable waste making up as little as 10% and 15-20% of their residual waste respectively.
Landfill Directive
Presently, the UK is working towards Landfill Directive targets for the reduction of biodegradable municipal waste in landfill. By weight, biowaste going to landfill should reduce to 75% of its 1995 tonnage by 2006, to 50% by 2009 and 35% by 2016.
But the Landfill Directive does not proscribe how this biowaste should be collected or what should happen to it.
The compost directive is due to be proposed to the EU Commission in 2004 and agreed in 2006. It could then become law in the UK as early as 2008.
Also speaking at the meeting was Alice Roberts from DEFRA, who said that separation of different waste materials at some stage seemed inevitable. Referring to the wording of the working document on biowaste, she said: “This doesn't mean it's going to happen, but it's there. If I have two messages about the future, it's that biowaste and hazardous waste will have to come out of the household fraction and the municipal waste stream generally.”
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