Former environment secretary Gummer made a peer

Mr Gummer, who is currently chairman of compliance scheme Valpak, appears on the traditional 'dissolution list' of former MPs, having stepped down from his role as Conservative MP for the Suffolk Coastal constituency at last month's General Election.

He served as secretary of state for the environment between 1993 and 1997, during which time he introduced the Landfill Tax as a way of helping the UK to meet its diversion goals under the EU Landfill Directive.

He is joined on the list of outgoing MPs receiving a peerage by the chair of waste management company SITA UK's advisory board, former government minister Hilary Armstrong, who similarly relinquished her role as Labour MP for North West Durham this year.

Meanwhile, joining Mr Gummer on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords will be the chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), Margaret Eaton, who has been outspoken on waste issues such as packaging reduction (see letsrecycle.com story) and councils' role in bio-waste management (see letsrecycle.com story).

Ms Eaton, who receives her peerage as one of the new party-political life peerages proposed by Gordon Brown, was elected as the first female chair of the LGA in September 2008, after having served as a councillor in Bradford since 1986.

Armstrong

Former Labour MP Ms Armstrong joined SITA's advisory board, which aims to help steer the company's UK operations, as chair in July 2008, having held a number of ministerial roles including minister for local government and taking up a cabinet post as chief whip in 2001.

Her appointment to the SITA advisory board came under fire from the then-shadow local government minister Eric Pickles who told the Daily Mail in August 2008 that she had “sold out” by working with the company.

She will sit on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.

Privy Council

The appointments approved by the Queen also included a list of new appointees to the Privy Council – the body of senior politicians formally tasked with advising the monarch on decision-making – which includes former Conservative shadow environment secretary, Nick Herbert MP, and the former Labour waste and recycling minister, Joan Ruddock MP.

It also includes two recently appointed ministers for communities and local government, Grant Schapps MP and Greg Clark MP.