Previous household waste arisings figures have generally shown a consistent 3% increase year on year. But yesterday Defra announced that for the first time there had been a 1% reduction in the total amount of municipal waste collected, from 29.4 million tonnes in 2002/2003 to 29.1 million tonnes in 2003/04.
In effect, if the projected increase of 3% had occurred, there would have been almost one million tonnes of extra material. Instead, there has been a fall of 300,000 tonnes, which could be seen as a reduction of about 1.2 million tonnes.
” The government's figures fail to reflect the fact that some councils have made excellent progress in minimising municipal waste.“
– Sue Doughty MP
The Department said another first in 2003/04 was the 2% reduction in the amount of household waste collected per person, from 520kg in 2002/03 to 510kg in 2003/04.
The sector is now considering a number of factors that may have led to this waste reduction, with Defra agreeing with speculation that a dry summer in 2003 may have been a strong factor.
Rainfall
In the summer of 2002, the UK's average rainfall was just nearly 260mm, but in 2003 the figure dropped to 176mm.
Durk Reyner, vice chair of LARAC – Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee – said: “In my district of Welwyn Hatfield we had a reduction. We think this may be because of the dry summer causing a decrease in the weight of green waste, but we don't think it will be the same this year. It's great news, but is perhaps just one year of good fortune.”
The feeling from other areas of the sector was that while the dry summer is likely to have had an impact on the figures, other measures by local authorities to minimise waste are beginning to make their mark.
Trade waste
Alice Roberts, the LGA executive manager for waste and environment, told letsrecycle.com: “Possible reasons could be that more is being done by local authorities to tackle trade waste abuse, therefore removing some of this from the domestic stream. An increase in home composting may also have played a part.”
Ms Roberts was keen to highlight the uncertainties around the reasons for the reduction in waste, pointing out: “There seems to be no understanding of why municipal waste has gone down. I think the fact that we do not know why the reduction occurred is interesting.”
Local authorities themselves are encouraged by the figures and believe that alternate weekly collection schemes and their work to minimise waste has been key.
Mark Allen, Norfolk county council's waste resource manager, said his council had seen a reduction in its waste and had put this down to a number of possible factors.
“We have been really clamping down on the amount of DIY waste at our civic amenity sites. We now only allow householders to bring one item of DIY waste or one black sack equivalent per week,” he explained. “I think this has helped the reduction.”
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Mr Allen added that the council's new weekly alternate collection scheme for waste and recycling, along with restrictions in side waste, had also played a part. And reduction in trade waste from the domestic audit was also something to be considered he said.
Lib Dems
While local authorities have been encouraged by the boost in recycling rates, Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Sue Doughty MP said that the way Defra has produced its figures fails to give councils credit for work on waste minimisation. In particular, she pointed out that work on home composting is not being included in council recycling rates.
Ms Doughty said: “The government's figures fail to reflect the fact that some councils have made excellent progress in minimising municipal waste. For example, councils who encourage people to take responsibility of their waste through home composters appear to be doing worse on these figures than councils who collect waste for central composting.”
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