Speaking at a meeting of the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group on Wednesday, Mr Morley told an audience of industry professionals and MPs: “We have met our 17% figure and when the figures are finalised I am optimistic we have done a little bit better.”
”We have met our 17% figure and when the figures are finalised I am optimistic we have done a little bit better.“
– Elliot Morley
Defra is expected to confirm the national recycling rate for England as part of the results of the Municipal Waste Management Survey 2003/04 shortly. Prior to the official announcement, Mr Morley said that signs were that the 3% growth in generation of domestic waste “is slowing”, but he raised concerns at the variation in council performance on recycling.
Mr Morley said: “While we have met our national figures, these figures do show some very big variations. Some local authorities are still recycling in single figures, and this is entirely unacceptable. We know where these local authorities live, and will be giving them a visit.
“With all this momentum and change, we can't afford people falling behind,” he added.
Strategy Review
Mr Morley conceded that local authorities were finding costs rising for waste management, but said he hoped the proposed changes to planning policy and the review of Waste Strategy 2000 would help.
At the meeting in Westminster, a warning came from the Environment Agency's head of waste policy, Martin Brocklehurst that the amount of recovery infrastructure available for commercial and industrial waste is coming under pressure from the municipal waste stream.
Mr Brocklehurst said that because targets and financial penalties were so much more widespread in the municipal waste stream, local authorities were encroaching on progress that had been made in the recycling and recovery of commercial and industrial waste.
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Mr Morley confirmed that the revised Waste Strategy would emphasise the commercial and industrial waste streams more than they had been before, but said that the government could not “dictate what the private sector does”.
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