The London Mayor suggested to an influential committee of MPs that local authorities in London may have reduced the size of their trade waste collection services to help them meet their government-set limits on landfill.
” Very little has changed except London boroughs are being allowed to take waste off their books to meet their targets. “
– John Duffy, GLA
The allegations were put to Parliament's Communities and Local Government Committee last night, as part of an inquiry into refuse collections. Mr Livingstone submitted a written statement to the MPs, with his environment policy director, John Duffy, and principal waste officer Pete Daw, appearing in person to answer the committee's questions.
The Mayor suggested boroughs are either selling off their trade waste services or purposefully pricing themselves out of the commercial waste collection market by charging unreasonable rates.
This would mean the councils in question collecting less waste, making it easier to keep to their landfill limits under the government's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS).
According to figures submitted to the MPs' inquiry, London has reduced its municipal waste landfill from 3.24 million tonnes in 2001/02 to 2.69 million tonnes in 2005/06. However, the landfills taking London waste have seen an increase in the amount of waste they have taken in according to Defra/Environment Agency figures.
Although these landfills also take non-London waste, clouding the figures, the sites took in 6.2 million tonnes of waste in 2003 and 7.7 million tonnes in 2005.
Boroughs
The Mayor singled out four London boroughs who have seen a significant reduction in the amount of trade waste they collect each year – City of London, Kingston, Wandsworth and Westminster. Westminster, for example, saw trade waste arisings reduce by 37,000 tonnes between 2000/01 and 2005/06.
Yet, with the economy showing a strong performance in London and businesses thriving, the Mayor fears this trade waste cannot have completely disappeared, but may be arriving in landfills via private collectors.
Mr Livingstone noted that Wandsworth and Kingston have recently sold off their trade waste portfolios but that by the Government's own guidance when this happens, it still remains under the local authority's control and they must report arisings from this waste.
One observer said: “This is a miracle of landfill diversion – four boroughs down by 108,000 tonnes is remarkable in a thriving capital city.”
In his evidence, the Mayor also accused central government and the Environment Agency of not properly monitoring the LATS system, and of failing to take action against councils flouting its rules. The Scheme sees councils fined 150 for every tonne of biodegradable waste they send to landfill above their annual limits.
The London Mayor called on MPs to investigate the issue, saying he feared that “rather than genuinely reducing the amount of municipal waste being sent to landfill, local authorities are attempting to find loopholes or disregard the rules relating to the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme (LATS) system, to give the impression that landfill has been reduced, when in fact the waste continues to go to landfill.”
Concern
Commenting on the issue, Mr Duffy explained to letsrecycle.com: “Various tables and statistics are being used show how London boroughs have reduced their waste – the concern that the Mayor has is that this waste has merely been directed to landfill via the private commercial sector.
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“Very little has changed except London boroughs are being allowed to take waste off their books to meet their targets. Although London is now recycling more, it is not recycling enough and we are exporting far too much of our rubbish to landfill sites and incinerators outside of London, with the Home Counties bearing the brunt.
“European targets intended to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill are being side-stepped by London's local authorities and the government seems to be turning a blind eye – the run-on effect of this is the negative impact on the environment. This further fuels the case for a single waste disposal authority in London. The current arrangements for planning and managing waste in London clearly aren't working,” the Mayor's environment policy director.
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