The government bowed to demands for a national forum in its official reply to a report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that was published in July 2002 (see letsrecycle.com story). The reply, titled Hazardous waste: government's reply to the Committee's Eight Report of Session 2001-02, said the forum's key roles would include recommending waste reduction targets and advising on possible pitfalls of the Landfill Directive.
“We are keen to work in partnership with industry and local authorities to provide an environmentally acceptable way forward for the management of hazardous waste,” the government report said.
Membership of the group is likely to combine government departments, the Environment Agency and devolved administrations, local authorities, hazardous waste producers and the waste management industry. Its first task will be to outline a way forward for the government within six months, and after 18 months it will advise on suggested targets for hazardous waste reduction.
Waste acceptance
The reply admitted that the absence of the waste acceptance criteria had “caused uncertainty” and possibly delayed investment in treatment facilities. It agreed that the determining the criteria was taking too long, but maintained that it had pressured the European Commission to allow time for member states to implement the criteria.
“The UK did all it could to drive the process forward and compensate for absence of agreed European WAC,” the reply said, adding that interim UK criteria were provided in the Landfill Regulations.
In response to a request to review the European Commission's methods of legislating in light of the delay, the government said that it had lobbied consistently for improvements to European legislation quality, and pointed to two recent EC commitments: the 6th Environmental Action programme which aims for wide consultation on and evaluation of impact of policies; and the Action Plan on Simplifying and Improving the Regulatory Environment.
Risk
The EFRA report had recommended “as a matter of urgency” that the government assess the risk posed by hazardous landfilling between the date of the end of co-disposal and the introduction of the WAC. Responding to evidence given to the committee, the government said: “We agree… the changeover from one regime to the other represents a difficult practical problem.
“If the WAC are not brought in until 2005 or later, hazardous waste disposal by landfill will only be permitted if it poses no unacceptable risk to the environment and human health.” The Environment Agency would be responsible for deciding appropriate conditions on sites for this period, the reply said.
Funding
The committee had also said that Environment Agency funding should be urgently reviewed. The reply said discussions were in progress about Agency funding for 2003/04 to 2005/06, and said the Agency's Corporate Plan, which will set out funding details for this period, is due out by the end of 2002.
The full government report can be found on the UK Parliament Committees reports and publications homepage.
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