The warning comes in a report delivered today to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions which looked at the issue of the exemption and brownfield land reclamation.
The report, by two firms of consultants, advises the DETR that there was wide agreement from both public and private sectors that the contaminated land tax exemption provides “a positive message of encouragement for brownfield regeneration.”
But, for the waste industry the other side of the coin as far as landfill is concerned, is that less material is being disposed of in this way. The study notes that figures for the years 1997/98 and 1998/99 show a dramatic fall in tonnages landfilled in licensed sites, from 36 million tonnes per annum down to 30 mtpa, representing a reduction of 17%.
The consultants appear to suggest that a question may hang over what is happening to this material when they say “Inert waste of this type is often recycled legitimately as materials for development.”
For further details of the findings, see site reclamation.
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