STRATEGY: Government accused of bullying householders

Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth MP made his comments today (May 24) in the House of Commons after environment secretary David Miliband MP made his statement on the waste strategy. (see letsrecycle.com story)

Peter Ainsworth, shadow environment secretary

But Mr Miliband hit back at Mr Ainsworth's “factual errors” and accused him of not knowing the issues.

Mr Ainsworth hit out at the planned consultation into “revenue-neutral financial schemes” for charging householders for waste. (see letsrecycle.com story)

Bullying

He accused the government of “bullying householders with threats of fines” and said the decision would create “at best, widespread disappointment and at worst a wide degree of alarm”.

He said of the waste strategy: “Local authorities expecting some certainty will find vagueness and indecision”. Mr Ainsworth believed that the strategy outlined much consultation and planning to do things rather than actual action.

He added: “People want something straightforward and instead we have been offered more consultation and more dithering.”

Miliband

However, when Mr Ainsworth said energy-from-waste should be the “last resort” when it came to disposing of waste, Mr Miliband said it was widely accepted that the “last resort” in the waste hierarchy was actually landfill.

And when Mr Ainsworth said the government had failed to address the problem of excess junk mail and was merely consulting with the Direct Marketing Association, has they had agreed to do in the Waste Strategy 2000, Mr Miliband also hit back

He accused Mr Ainsworth of failing to read the strategy or even listen to the debate because it had been written and said that this agreement would actually be put into practice.

Confusion

Mr Ainsworth also argued that “Britain has become the dirty man of Europe” and that the government had made a “hash” of waste policy. He said there was much confusion over European directives such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directives. He said he was willing to bet that the next wave of confusion would come from the Batteries Directive.

Mr Ainsworth also criticised Mr Miliband for highlighting the government's efforts to reduce annual household waste growth to half a percent each year. He said the annual growth of overall waste of three per cent needed to be addressed.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Chris Huhne told MPs in Parliament that Britain needed to commit to “achieving the best in Europe as opposed to the worst” when it came to waste.

He said that only Greece and Portugal recycled less – although Mr Miliband corrected this to say that the figure referred to landfill rather than recycling. Mr Huhne also stated that Germany and the Netherlands recycled three times more than this country.