Speaking at the LARAC Wales conference at the Marriott Hotel in Cardiff yesterday (12 July), Dr Andy Rees said the Welsh government could introduce a ban on biodegradable waste going to landfill in Wales.
Wales sent 72,200 tonnes of municipal waste to landfill in the 2020/21 financial year, down from 640,900 tonnes in 2012/12. However, the Welsh government still shows 20 active landfill sites in the country, which also take large amounts of commercial waste.
During his presentation, Dr Rees spoke about Wales’s net zero goals, which include sending no biodegradable waste to landfill by 2025 and improving methane capture at landfills.
He said: “There’s something like a million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents emitted every year from our landfills.
“Some of that is perhaps down to under-reporting of methane capture, so there’s obviously more work that needs doing there to make sure we capture that data properly.”
Dr Rees also said he was “a little bit concerned” about the amount of biodegradable waste from England going into Welsh landfills.
“We’re keeping a close eye on that to see if we might have to introduce a ban on biodegradable waste going to landfill in Wales if that continues,” Dr Rees said.
“We have EPR obviously increasing recycling, particularly of paper and cardboard, and that should get biodegradable waste out [of landfills].”
Film
Dr Rees also hinted that the Welsh Government could look to introduce the collection of plastic film at the kerbside before the rest of the UK.
Under the government’s plans for extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, recyclable plastic film and flexible packaging is to be collected for recycling from both households and businesses across the UK by 31 March 2027 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Dr Rees said: “Collections for recyclable plastic film across the UK will be introduced by 2027 at the latest, but we are thinking of perhaps introducing that earlier in Wales, so watch this space.
“There is a project under way which will end up with trials of plastic film collections from household and non-domestic premises.
“Obviously, at some point we will be very keen to go out and encourage organisations and local authorities to take part in that trial, to look at the best way to collect plastic film.”
Dr Rees said sampling at materials recycling facilities was needed to ascertain the proportion of film packaging collected with paper and card and other material streams.
80% recycling
Meanwhile, another to speak at the conference was Bettina Gilbert, head of technical support and financial mechanisms at resources charity WRAP. She spoke about how Wales could reach an 80% household waste recycling rate.
Wales had a recycling rate of 65.4% in the 2020/21 financial year, placing it third in the world (see letsrecycle.com story). The Welsh Government has targeted 70% recycling by 2024/25.
Ms Gilbert said WRAP was working with the Welsh Government to look at an “evidence-based programme” for setting targets beyond 2024/25.
The Welsh Government aims to recycle 100% of Wales’s waste by 2050, and as such Ms Gilbert suggested they could reach 80% by 2034, though she noted the timetable remained unclear.
She said: “A lot of what will contribute to this is frequent collections, some residual restrictions and increasing food waste collections.
“We know that there isn’t going to be a simple, single ‘silver bullet’ – there’s going to be a combination of things that help us achieve 80% recycling. There’s not one thing that’s going to give us that 10% bump.”
Wales will have to collect some additional materials to reach 80% recycling, Ms Gilbert said, including film and absorbent hygiene products (AHPs). She said the latest Welsh waste composition analysis showed film represented 4% and AHPs 9%.
However, she added: “We know that we won’t get 100% of those products, so that’s still not going to get us to 80%.”
Targets
Craig Mitchell, head of waste, planning and transport at the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), also spoke at the conference.
Mr Mitchell said the WLGA was “very glad” the Welsh Government was taking a “pragmatic and practical” approach to setting targets, based upon “what is deliverable, why it’s deliverable and what investment is required to make it deliverable, rather than just having arbitrary dates and targets.”
He added: “We think that’s really useful, but we also need a dialogue about what other targets we need within the sector.
“Repair and reuse are two areas which are being looked at. The difficulty is, how do you measure that? How do you understand that? How do you prove that?”
Turning to EPR, Mr Mitchell said the WLGA was having a “debate” with Defra over data requirements. “What’s interesting is, we have a wealth of data in Wales that just doesn’t exist anywhere else in the UK,” he said.
Subscribe for free