UK waste strategy needs changing, new report claims

In a study to be launched next week, Dr David Davies compared waste strategies between different western countries and found that highest recycling performers set landfill diversion targets instead of recycling targets.

“Waste strategies in the UK tend to place greatest emphasis on meeting aspirational recycling/ composting targets. In doing so they adopt a 'top-down approach' to the waste hierarchy that places insufficient emphasis on the single most important legislative measure that should be driving the strategy, namely the EC Landfill Directive targets,” he said.

It would be better to set landfill diversion targets, he added, which would promote a progressive reduction in our reliance on landfill.

In addition, the report said some of the UK's recycling targets are “unachievable”, especially for major metropolitan area. For largely rural areas diversion rates of 60% have been achieved, but the best performing urban areas in Europe and North Amercia only recycle and compost around 45% of their waste and the largest metropolitan areas seldom exceed 35%.

The report also accuses the London Assembly of setting the “unrealistic” recycling target of 60% by 2015. It says London compares to New York, whose mandatory recycling scheme has achieved a 20% recycling rate after 15 years, with 25% considered to be the maximum achievable.

Dr Davies said: “It is by no means clear how a comparable city like London will achieve a performance two or three times this level; indeed, it will do well to match it.”

He expressed concern that, although the UK is improving its recycling rate through investment, not enough consideration is being given to residual waste treatment and so new facilities may not come on line in time to meet the Landfill Directive targets.

Incineration

The study found that countries, such as Austria, with the highest recycling rates also used energy-from-waste plants for residual waste treatment.

“There is little evidence that incineration is &#39c;rowding out' recycling, as is sometimes claimed. On the contrary, what is happening is that incineration is &#39c;rowding out' landfill and replacing it as a means of residual waste treatment,” the report says.

Mr Davies said that anti-incinerator groups' claims that incineration discourages recycling only becomes true if too much energy-from-waste capacity is built. He praised Project Integra's waste strategy in Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth which maximises recycling and composting with energy from waste treatment for residual waste and landfill for the fly ash.

The report entitled High diversion- is it achievable? will be published by the Resource Recovery Forum. It will be launched alongside the RRF's WasteFlow CD tool for waste management modelling on June 24 in London.

For more information, visit the Resource Recovery Forum's website.