Definition of municipal waste guidance delayed

In order to help local authorities understand how much of the waste they dispose of is municipal, the government was set to release guidance timed to coincide with the first quarter reporting of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme in late June.

” Due to the complexity of the issue, we have been unable to provide this clarity (on the definition of municipal waste) within the timescales originally envisaged “
– Defra
Defra has now said that the guide is not ready for publication and is still being developed by officials and the Environment Agency.

A spokesman for Defra told letsrecycle.com: “Due to the complexity of the issue, we have been unable to provide this clarity within the timescales originally envisaged. We appreciate the urgency of the issue, but are keen to ensure that the guidance addresses all the issues that have previously been raised with us and it is taking longer than expected to resolve these.

“We are continuing to work closely with the Environment Agency to provide clear and useful guidance on both the definition of municipal waste and the mass balance calculation as soon as possible. We are also working to ensure that this is consistent with the approach taken in WasteDataFlow,” he added.

Exact tonnages


Despite millions of pounds at stake through fines and potential landfill trading, local authorities are not entirely clear of the definition of municipal waste under the scheme.

The Local Authority Recycling Advisory committee has said that the guidance will help clarify what local authorities can expect for the 15-year scheme.

Lee Marshall, chair of LARAC, said: “Once the guidance is clarified it will detail exactly what local authorities can count as municipal waste. They will then know exact tonnages that they can deal with, but it won't change the way they see LATS all that much.”

However, Mr Marshall said the fact councils have already started trading allowances demonstrated that they are not overly concerned by the delay in guidance (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: “We are at the very early stages of LATS and yet there are already a couple of councils trading, they are obviously happy with the scheme.”