Daniel Instone is the Department's head of waste strategy, and was speaking at yesterday's Recycling and Waste Forum event, explaining some of the thinking behind the new English Waste Strategy, which he said would be published in May after the local elections.
Mr Instone discussed the need to look at local authority targets for recycling, and also spoke of the need for new approaches towards different materials, products and waste-producing sectors, particularly focussing on the carbon emissions achievable by diverting waste from landfill.
Councils
As well as highlighting last month's announcement by the Chancellor that Landfill Tax will go up each year by 8 per tonne from 2008, Mr Instone said other financial instruments including different waste collection funding systems were now “very clearly on the agenda”.
He referred to last month's report by Sir Michael Lyons on council funding, which “explicitly said local authorities should have powers to charge for waste much more clearly compared to how much is produced”. Mr Instone also reminded the audience that environment secretary David Miliband is “personally very interested in this agenda”.
Mr Instone also said council waste and recycling targets were being reconsidered, including the possible changes being made for councils wishing to partner up as joint waste authorities, once the current Local Government Bill is passed by Parliament.
He said: “We have a very active agenda on local government. We are working on a whole set of new indicators and targets – giving local authorities a reasonable amount of freedom to choose the nature of their targets.”
Materials
Noting various aims of the new waste strategy, including the simplification of existing regulation and the introduction of more producer responsibility measures – voluntary at first, compulsory “if necessary” – Mr Instone stressed the importance of dealing with materials individually. “It can be misleading to think of waste as a homogeneous lot,” he said.
Defra is looking at a “hollistic approach”, but will be looking at materials strategies, product strategies and sector strategies to consider the best possible measures to divert more waste from landfill – and more explicitly link the waste strategy to the saving of carbon emissions. “The message is we have to engage on material, product and sector level – we need all of them, one size does not fit all.”
In his presentation, Mr Instone revealed Defra's intention to prioritise materials where the most carbon savings can be achieved, showing a graph in which Defra's calculations suggested the diversion of paper and wood would bring the most carbon benefits, while food waste, plastic and non-ferrous metals recovery also represented significant benefits in tackling climate change.
LGA
Speaking after Mr Instone on the carbon agenda for the new waste strategy, Cllr Paul Bettison of the Local Government Association warned that councils were now facing a “double whammy” of financial headaches with the increasing costs of sending waste to landfill and the high cost of recycling.
The chair of the LGA's environment board said there was “lively debate” currently underway on possible new charging systems for household waste – “pay less if you recycle more, but yes, pay more if you can't be bothered” – but warned against imposing any form of “pay as you throw” on top of the existing waste management element of Council Tax.
Cllr Bettison said: “We don't think the achievements of local authorities lets the government off the hook. Charging would be a Poll Tax via bins if on top of the Council Tax. Government needs to fund this – revenue assistance but also capital assistance. New collection and recycling points are beyond the capability of councils these days.”
The Bracknell councillor warned that if councils are not given the funding required, cuts in other essential services – care for the elderly, libraries and leisure facilities – would be at risk. “We would have to cut services,” he said, “and that would mean the vulnerable will be paying alone.”
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