In a hearing held yesterday, a Parliamentary Standing Committee accepted amendments tabled by environment minister Michael Meacher which will see the 50% recycling target requirement of the bill dropped. The government has set a lower target, 30% by 2010, in its Waste Strategy.
Mr Meacher added a clause which actually takes the Bill closer to its original form as proposed by the pressure group Friends of the Earth. This means that councils would have to provide a kerbside recycling service for every household by 2010, a service that would have to collect at least two materials for recycling.
Commenting on the policy change, a spokesman from DEFRA said: “Yesterday's Committee has moved the debate forward and we are please that a consensus has been reached.”
Although it can be very difficult for a private member's bill to get through Parliament, supporters of the Municipal Waste Recycling Bill view the government's support as a real leap in the chances of the Bill becoming law.
Joan Ruddock, the Lewisham Deptford Labour MP who introduced the private member's Bill into Parliament said: “At last the government has appreciated the overwhelming support for increasing household recycling services. It's been a tough negotiation and it will only become law if the all party support is delivered again at the final debate on 11th July 2003.”
Friends of the Earth are in jubilant mood following the private member's Bill hearing, although ideally they would have liked to have seen the demand for at least four materials to be collected by councils for recycling.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, senior parliamentary campaigner Martyn Williams said: “We welcome the government's amendment and clearly welcome its support. We would have liked four materials, but once the councils put in the investment needed to collect two materials for recycling, we don't see that it will cost much more to add more.”
Get out clauses
The government did add some “get out” measures, however. Councils won't have to provide the kerbside service if they can show that “comparable” recycling services for households already exist.
MPs pressed Michael Meacher to define the term “comparable”, and when it was suggested this might mean bring banks within 100 yards of a household, the environment minister said he would hope it would mean “considerably closer than that”. Mr Meacher agreed he would produce guidance notes clarifying the issue.
If councils can demonstrate valid reasons why they would not be able to provide the kerbside services needed, the government would have the power to grant them a deferral of five years on the 2010 deadline. However, Mr Meacher said this eventuality would be rare.
Councils can also avoid collection services if they are shown to be “unreasonably” expensive – for example where the houses are extremely isolated. This measure already exists for normal waste collection services.
Register for free to comment