The scheme, which begins next month in England, will see councils with disposal responsibilities limited in the amount of biodegradable municipal waste they can send to landfill (see letsrecycle.com report).
But, while millions of pounds in fines are at stake, councils still do not have a clear idea of how trade waste fits in to the scheme, and in particular trade waste from privately-run collection contracts.
Confusion
In a report from the Parliamentary committee on environment, food and rural affairs published yesterday, MPs highlighted evidence they had heard “about the confusion among many stakeholders over the exact definition of municipal waste”.
The committee then stated its concerns “about the possible impact this might have on assessing whether local authorities have achieved their targets and indeed on the operation of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS).”
MPs said: “We recommend that Defra make clear, as quickly as possible, precisely what categories of waste will be allowed to count towards achievement of local authority targets and will be included in the LATS, and the criteria used in deciding them.”
Recommendations
Elsewhere in the Committee report, MPs called for:
- Better data within waste management, particularly in hazardous waste management;
- Less bureaucratic red tape at the Environment Agency;
- More flexibility in the Private Finance Initiative for waste funding;
- Clearer government policy on planning for new waste plants;
- Full consultation with local residents on incineration and hazardous waste incineration in cement kilns;
- Incentive schemes for local authority recycling;
- More awareness for the general public on the impact of waste.
The EFRA Committee said while it agreed with ministers that landfill diversion targets are “challenging”, it was “less optimistic they can be achieved”. MPs added that meeting the 17% national target for recycling and composting household waste in 2003/04 was “no indication” that Landfill Directive targets would be met.
Complex
Commenting on his committee's findings, chairman Michael Jack MP said: “What this report confirms is that Britain continues to face an ever more complex and growing challenge about how to deal with both household and industrial waste. At the same time, compared to, for instance, climate change, this subject is in the low profile column.
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“Given the limits now imposed on landfill, the Government must step forward and give real leadership in determining whether processes like incineration really can play a major role in dealing with Britain’s ever-mounting volume of waste,” Mr Jack said.
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