“Considerable increase” in funds needed for Welsh recycling

Despite the fact that councils are currently meeting their landfill diversion targets under the Landfill Allowance Scheme (see letsrecycle.com story), the Assembly's Environment, Planning and Countryside Committee has said it was “disappointed” that nine local authorities missed their 15% recycling targets in 2003/04.

The Committee was reporting back after an inquiry into the chances of meeting long-term recycling, composting and landfill diversion targets.

” We are calling for a considerable increase in funding in order to ensure that the targets for 2009/10 are met. “
– Alun Ffred Jones AM
The chairman of the committee, Assembly Member Alun Ffred Jones, said he believed Wales faces a “very substantial challenge” if it is to increase the amount of waste recycled and composted.

Wales has been set targets to recycle 25% of its municipal waste by 2006/07 and 40% of its waste by 2009/10. The principality recycled just over 16% of its municipal waste in 2004/05 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Jones said: “While acknowledging the substantial funding that the government has provided to date to ensure higher recycling and composting rates, we are calling for a considerable increase in funding in order to ensure that the targets for 2009/10 are met.”

Plan
The Assembly Member for Caernarfon said a number of measures would be needed to help struggling local authorities meet their targets, but also that “every local authority in Wales should plan more efficiently to meet targets in the longer term”.

An improved planning process and guidance on which kind of technologies should be used to meet targets was needed, the Committee chairman said, while Welsh businesses needed more support to make more use of recycled products.

The report also argued for an end to the Assembly's requirement that councils should centrally compost green waste to meet a proportion of their recycling targets. The requirement acts against the need to encourage home composting, the report said.

Recommendations
Recommendations of the Committee's report include:

• Further action to ensure recycling/composting rates improve among poorer-performing councils;
• Councils to use user-friendly source-segregation systems for collecting recyclable waste;
• Assembly should remove council minimum composting targets from recycling targets to encourage home composting;
• Assembly should introduce material-specific targets for recycling bulky-but-light materials like plastics;
• Assembly should press UK government to introduce waste minimisation penalties, producer responsibility levies or tax reductions on environmentally-friendly products;
• Regional waste plans to be made statutory to strengthen planning for waste;
• Clearer guidance on new waste treatment technologies;
• Local authority waste funding should be announced up to 2013 to allow long-term planning;
• Awareness work to be carried out in schools, public should be given confidence in monitoring and pollution control measures of waste treatment facilities;
• More support given to developing markets for recycling, including new public sector procurement requirements;
• Research to be funded including exemplar demonstration projects for new technologies and development of new recycled products.