Local authority residual waste arisings showed an overall 0.8% increase between 2012/13 and 2013/14, according to a survey of 25 councils by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT).
16 of the 25 local authorities surveyed by the body, which is made up of senior council waste officers, showed an increase in waste arisings in the first quarter of 2013/14 compared to the same quarter the previous year, with one council even reporting a 7.53% increase in residual waste tonnage.
Of the nine reporting a decrease, however, one councils data showed a 10.5% reduction in residual waste over the last year when comparing tonnage for quarter one in 2012/13 and 2013/14. The council highlighted a recent change in kerbside collections for dry recycling as a possible factor in the reduction.
The survey data follows concerns raised by ADEPT about the level of residual waste arisings in the UK, as it claims that wastedataflow information shows there is a capacity gap for residual waste treatment coming on stream in the next few years.
President of ADEPT, Steve Kent, said: ADEPT and other organisations have been highlighting for some months the likelihood of an increase in waste arisings as the economy begins to grow again. There is evidence of this already and a real risk that the UK will fail to meet its Landfill Diversion Targets.
The survey findings are at odds governments data on waste arisings and Mr Kent said ADEPT was talking to several organisations about establishing a more robust basis for forecasting future waste generation, which he hoped Defra would participate in.
Review
It follows a letter sent by Mr Kent in July to Defra minister Owen Paterson, which called on the government to review its out of date waste and recycling data and warning that the UK was in danger of missing 2020 landfill targets because of increasing residual waste levels and flattening recycling rates (see letsrecycle.com story).
‘ADEPT and other organisations have been highlighting for some months the likelihood of an increase in waste arisings as the economy begins to grow again. There is evidence of this already and a real risk that the UK will fail to meet its Landfill Diversion Targets.’
Steve Kent, ADEPT
Under the Landfill Directive, the UK must reduce biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) landfilled to 50% of the 1995 level by 2013, and to 35% of the 1995 level by 2020.
The organisation has also criticised the governments decision to withdraw millions of pounds of waste infrastructure credits from residual waste treatment projects in Merseyside, Bradford and Yorkshire.
It said that the withdrawals were short-sighted and would damage investor confidence in the UK waste sector as well as putting local services, jobs and economic growth at risk.
Defra
Despite the claims by ADEPT, the government maintains that the UK is on course to meet 2020 landfill targets and that its own analysis suggests collected household waste tonnages as well as landfill tonnages have in fact been falling, while household recycling, reuse and composting rates showed an increase in the last twelve months.
Responding to ADEPTs letter last month, agriculture and food minister David Heath claimed that government data showed 5.3 million tonnes of household waste was collected between October and December 2012 down by 0.9% compared to the same period the previous year.
Furthermore, Defra is thought to see little relationship between household waste arisings and economic growth, highlighting factors such as increased light-weighting of packaging, food waste prevention campaigns and the Courtauld food retail agreement in reducing residual waste tonnage arisings.
Meanwhile, the Department has also argued that the EfW projects in Merseyside, Bradford and Yorkshire were no longer needed to meet 2020 landfill targets and that it was still investing 3.6 billion in 29 UK waste infrastructure projects.
And, the potential for a future increase in waste arisings was among three possible scenarios highlighted by Dr Colin Church director of climate, waste and atmosphere at Defra in a presentation to delegates at the RWM exhibition last week (see letsrecycle.com story).
Defra is set to release the UKs official annual waste data in November.
Eunomia
Research published in 2012 by Bristol-based consultancy Eunomia claimed that the UK was at risk of heavily over-investing in residual waste treatment infrastructure and that the UK had seven million tonnes more consented residual waste capacity than there is residual waste requiring treatment (see letsrecycle.com story).
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