The Bill has now been finalised and approved by Parliament. It will now become an Act once it receives Royal Assent and the next procedural stage after that will be how DEFRA interprets its requirements. Friends of the Earth, the pressure group which supported the Bill, is hoping that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will issue guidance over green waste collections.
Under the Bill there is simply a requirement to collect two materials from the kerbside that can be recycled or composted. This is widely seen as including paper, glass, cans, plastic bottles, kitchen waste and green waste.
The inclusion in the Bill of green waste as an option for local authorities to count as one of the two materials that have to be collected is against the advice of former Environment Minister Michael Meacher. He had warned, in a Parliamentary debate, against including green waste as one of the materials that could be counted under the Act's requirement.
There are now fears that opting for collections of garden waste could jeopardise home composting and that by having a requirement for two materials including green waste, there will be a preference for garden waste and newspapers rather than lighter, more difficult to collect materials like plastic.
Loophole
Some experts are seeing the inclusion of green waste as a loophole. The bill defines recyclable waste as “household waste which is capable of being recycled or composted”. This could see waste that could ordinarily be composted at home taking the place of a material like cans or glass that would otherwise have been collected under the new regulations.
Joan Ruddock, the MP who introduced the private member's bill to Parliament told letsrecycle.com: “In effect the bill does say that green waste can be collected as one of the materials, because of this clause that says recyclable waste is any household waste that can be recycled or composted. But ministers said in debates on the bill they will issue guidance so that local authorities won't take the easy option, which could threaten home composting projects.”
Claire Wilton, senior waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth, the pressure group which drafted the bill, said ministers had warned that if green waste were included in the bill, it would create an extra waste stream.
She explained: “Michael Meacher was saying collecting green waste creates another waste stream and prevents waste minimisation. But it didn't make it into the bill. The government is going to have to write guidelines for local authorities and we hope they stress the advantages and disadvantages of a green waste collection.”
Uncertainty
However, letsrecycle.com spoke to DEFRA after the bill was passed and there seemed to be a great deal of uncertainty as to how the new regulations would be enacted.
Local authority experts expressed mixed views over the Act to letsrecycle.com . One said that with only an estimated 51% of local authorities carrying out kerbside work, a lot more will take it seriously. “But there will be complaints and discussions about the funding for the work.”
Another said that he expected there to be an increased drive for green waste because of tonnage based targets and because it would count as a material under the Act. “I do not think the Act will make any difference to the collection of plastics and cans.”
Paul Deakin, a past chairman of local authority recycling officers group LARAC, said: “I expect there will be more of a focus on green waste as it does put more weight on the bottom line for local authorities. I expect councils will be focussing on paper, glass and green waste.”
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