Speaking at a Local Government Association conference, Making Partnerships Work, in Westminster today, the environment minister said the WET Bill would be key to the government's aims of meeting European diversion from landfill targets.
The Bill will introduce a system of permits, which will set limits on the amount of material that each local authority can landfill that will tighten every year to decrease the overall amount of material going to landfill in the UK. These permits will be tradable and “bankable”, but Mr Meacher said that the system will only work successfully if local authorities take advantage of partnerships.
“It is a combination of a tax to discourage the landfilling of waste and an incentive to shift to promoting waste minimisation and recycling,” the environment minister explained. “But it will need a strong partnership approach to ensure the infrastructure is in place to allow the system to work.”
The WET Bill is currently going through Parliament, and Mr Meacher said that it was designed to allow the UK maximum flexibility to reach European targets. He added that the government is now looking for input from local authorities “at all levels” on the Bill.
For more information on the WET Bill, see the letsrecycle.com legislation section.
Anaerobic Digestion
During his speech, Michael Meacher acknowledged that some local councils have been frustrated by the Best Value Indicator regulations. These see anaerobic digestion of waste categorised as energy recovery, so the new waste management technology does not count for their recycling targets.
“There is a barrier to authorities wanting to use this option for their waste,” Mr Meacher said, “and we therefore propose to change the classification so that anaerobic digestion will be classified as partly composting and partly energy recovery.”
LTCS
Mr Meacher also recognized concerns surrounding the imminent change to the Landfill Tax Credit System due to be announced in April 2003. The current system of Environmental Bodies distributing money from the Landfill Tax is to be cut to a third of the total – around 47m – of the funds available, with the other two-thirds (around 100m) going via a “public expenditure” system.
The environment minister admitted that when the Landfill Tax rises – up 1 a tonne to 14 a tonne in April 2003, and by at least 3 a year from then onwards until it reaches 35 a tonne – the amount of money potentially available would be “significantly inflated”.
Answering a question raised by local government officers, Mr Meacher said that the government was looking into whether the extra money on top of the promised 100 million would go into the “public expenditure” scheme. An announcement would be made around the time of the Budget in April, he said. However, he said that conceivably the 100 million figure, promised by the government to improve sustainable waste management via the public purse, could reach as high as 400 million as the Landfill Tax rises.
Register for free to comment