The news came as Welsh environment minister Jane Davidson announced a £26 million fund to develop anaerobic digestion technology and action to reduce the use of single-use carrier bags as part of its vision for a more sustainable Wales.
The technology of anaerobic digestion will play a key part in how Wales deals with its waste and will also provide a new source of renewable energy
Jane Davidson, Welsh environment minister
Speaking to letsrecycle.com today, a spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) confirmed: “The draft waste strategy will be published for consultation next month.”
The draft waste strategy is expected to set out just how the WAG plans to reach a 70% recycling rate by 2025, and is expected to look at waste as part of a wider sustainability agenda (see letsrecycle.com story).
Anaerobic digestion
In the lead-up to the publication of the strategy, Ms Davidson today (February 12) announced a £26 million funding boost for Welsh local authorities to use to anaerobic digestion technology to tackle food waste.
Ms Davidson has been a strong supporter of AD (see letsrecycle.com story), and, speaking at the Wales Waste National Conference in Cardiff, she said that: “The technology of anaerobic digestion will play a key part in how Wales deals with its waste and will also provide a new source of renewable energy.”
She added: “We consider it feasible to separately collect some 600,000 tonnes of food waste each year from houses and businesses in Wales. Digesting this quantity of food waste in a network of AD plants would generate around 1% of Wales' electricity needs – 0.2 TWHrs.”
The funding will be made available through the Strategic Capital Investment Fund, and will initially involve £2 million being set aside for both 2009/10 and 2010/11 to help fund the procurement of AD projects.
The second part of the allocation involves a further £2 million being made available for procurement and £20 million capital input which councils can use to reduce the gate fee they pay for the use of AD facilities.
The commitment – which will involve the WAG funding up to 25% of the net costs councils face for using new AD facilities – echoes a more general guarantee it made last month for councils looking to develop and use treatment infrastructure that diverts waste from landfill (see letsrecycle.com story).
Bags
Ms Davidson has also announced that she had asked the WAG to begin work on legislation to end the use of single-use carrier bags.
The legislation would use powers granted to the WAG under the Climate Change Act in November 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), to force retailers to charge their customers for using the bags.
Explaining the plans, Ms Davidson said yesterday: “I have asked my department to develop legislation to end the use of single use carrier bags. Currently there is a voluntary agreement where certain retailers have agreed to reduce the number of single use carrier bags by 50% by May this year.
“But this does not cover all retailers and still leaves 50% using one trip plastic bags. I recognise we need to give the retail sector a chance to demonstrate what they can do voluntarily, but I am willing to use all the powers at our disposal,” she added.
An estimated 490 million single-use carrier bags are used in Wales each year, but while the WAG will be able to impose a charge on retailers, it is not yet able to tell them what to do with the money they raise from a levy.
Powers
These powers will not be available to the WAG until the Legislative Competence Order (LCO) that was first mooted in June 2007 (see letsrecycle.com story) is passed through parliament at Westminster to give Wales more power to set stronger waste and recycling legislation independently of the rest of the UK.
The WAG spokesman explained that the LCO was not yet complete, but was “expected to be laid before Parliament this summer.”
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