Councils have been banking their allocation of allowances this year within Defra's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS), in which waste disposal authorities are given an annual quota for landfilling biodegradable waste.
Defra's public register for the LATS system shows that every disposal authority in England except two banked landfill allowances from the first year of the scheme, 2005/06, into this second year, 2006/07.
Some 14 authorities even bought in surplus allowances from other councils at around 20 per tonne in order to bank for their later use, with fears that allowance prices will soar towards the first Landfill Directive target in 2010.
If there is a shortage of allowances, councils that landfill more biodegradable waste in any year than they have allowances to cover face government fines of 150 per tonne.
As the second year of LATS came to a close this month, Hampshire was once again the biggest seller of landfill allowances, passing 120,257 tonnes' worth on to other authorities.
Buyers
North Yorkshire topped the purchasing league, buying in 37,000 tonnes' worth of allowances. Merseyside, which purchased 100,000 tonnes' worth of allowances from Hampshire in the first year of LATS banked 131,000 allowances for use in 2006/07 as it awaits a 3 billion PFI contract procurement.
North Tyneside council, which bought 20,000 tonnes of permits in 2006/07, said it had done so to “manage for the worst case scenario”, and tide itself over while considering possible new technologies to divert waste from landfill.
Some councils, like East Riding which bought 8,755 permits in the second year of LATS, are also developing incineration technology to keep within the landfill quotas that have been set in an ever-decreasing level up to 2020. East Riding is working with neighbouring Hull council and contractor WRG to develop an incinerator.
But some local authorities have warned that the LATS system will see councils with a poor record on waste shelling out much-needed funds to pay for allowances from councils that are already achieving their waste targets.
A spokesman for East Sussex County Council, which bought 21,000 permits in 2006/07, said: “Effectively for this council, our tax payers are helping to fund services in Hampshire, which is in the fortunate position of having surplus permits.”
Nevertheless, Steve Burdis, vice chairman of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers and head of waste at high-recycling Dorset County Council, said LATS was an important driver for investment in new infrastructure.
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Mr Burdis noted: “At the moment the private sector seems reluctant to invest in new technologies because landfill costs are still cheaper than a lot of other waste disposal methods.”
He said the combination of fines and taxes through LATS and the rising Landfill Tax could “offer substantial infrastructure opportunities to local Government and create a more active market.”
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