A spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today it was currently producing a note to offer guidance and explain the situation. This follows the announcement last week by Terry Coleman, waste strategy manager at the Environment Agency, that local authorities should stop the kerbside collection of kitchen waste.
A spokesman for DEFRA told letsrecycle: “The government is encouraging composting. The composting of green waste is absolutely fine and we are currently clarifying our position on composting animal by-products. We don't think that local authorities should stop the separate collection of organic waste there is no problem with composting. ”
However, there seems to be some conflict of opinion within the newly-formed DEFRA which includes former agriculture ministry (MAFF) officials as well as civil servants who handled recycling and waste management.
Call to end collections
The EA call to end collections of kitchen waste has been inspired by the May 2001 Amendments to the Animal Byproducts Order. Catherine Lamb, an official within the agriculture section of DEFRA explained to letsrecycle that the original order stated how kitchen and catering waste can be disposed of and it clearly says that animal waste can't be composted. The amendment order states that composting is not a permitted disposal route for any material that has been possibly contaminated by meat products and therefore prevents kitchen material from being composted.
She said: “There is no 100% guarantee that people will put the right piece of rubbish in the right bin. If there is meat in a kitchen then there is a chance that kitchen waste will be contaminated. Under the original by-product order you are not meant to compost kitchen waste. The rules of composting haven't changed as composting is not a permitted disposal route for animal by-products.”
Discussions are to take place next month to try and resolve the situation between the Environment Agency and DEFRA. In-vessel composting could be a solution to but this would take time to implement and in the meantime authorities have been advised by the EA to landfill their collected kitchen waste.
One composting expert, Jo Thompson, of HDRA Consultants, said: “We are very concerned about what was said last week that any local authority that collects kitchen waste will have to send it to landfill, it seems like madness at a time when local authorities are moving towards targets. It could do a lot of damage to the industry and it could kill collections in a couple of weeks. DEFRA said that meat comes into contact with kitchen waste, but we never advise people to put meat in with their green waste.”
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