English waste strategy delayed until May

Neil Thornton, the Department's director for environment, quality and waste, made the announcement as he addressed delegates at a Chartered Institution of Wastes Management event in London.

” David Miliband had a very strong determination to go through the waste strategy and to make sure that what we emerge with is the way he wants it. “
– Neil Thornton, Defra
He said the England Waste Strategy 2007 would not be released “this side of the Budget, but it is nearly complete and we are looking at May for publication.”

Defra decided to hold off the strategy until the Chancellor delivers his Budget on March 21, since last December's Pre-Budget Report announced possible increases in the current Landfill Tax escalator.

The Department is also awaiting the publication of a report by Sir Michael Lyons into the future of local government funding, which will include an analysis of the funding allocated to waste services, and could make recommendations on “pay-as-you-throw” collection schemes.

Miliband
Mr Thornton said the strategy's publication was also held-up by the new approach of environment secretary David Miliband towards climate change.

He said: “David Miliband had a very strong determination to go through the waste strategy and to make sure that what we emerge with is the way he wants it.”

Commenting on this latest delay to the waste strategy, which was originally planned to come out last year, Mr Thornton added: “It shouldn't produce any shock. It will only produce shock if the audience thinks there is something wrong with it, or it's something they haven't been consulted about.”

Carbon
Mr Thornton said the new strategy will look at how carbon levels are affected by increasing recycling and recovery from the waste stream. All types of recyclables will be considered although “glass will feature less because of the large amount of glass already recovered”.

The strategy will provide for the strengthening of relationships and partnerships with waste professionals.

It will also seek to make the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) as accessible as possible to local authorities, so the government can “achieve national targets but respect local autonomy”.

Mr Thorton added that England's “recycling targets on their own may not be enough” to meet landfill diversion targets and there would be “alternative or additional” targets set down in the review.

Defra launched the consultation document on England's waste programme last February and its proposals included raising national targets to 40% household waste recycling by 2010 – the average for England in 2005/06 was 26.7%.

It also put forward the case for stronger support for the recovery of energy from waste, for example by generating electricity through waste incineration (see letsrecycle.com story).

The strategy was due to be published in October but was delayed to tie-in the government's work on climate change.

Daniel Instone, the Defra official leading the review of England's waste strategy, will be among the high-level speakers discussing the direction of waste policy and climate change at a major conference at the Recycling and Waste Forum 2007 on April 18.