Assembly minister for environment, planning and countryside Carwyn Jones revealed the success of the Landfill Allowance Scheme at the official opening of the first in-vessel composting plant in Wales in Caerphilly.
 Minister Carwyn Jones (centre) with Alan Price of Bryn Compost (left) and Paul Roberts of the Wales Environment Trust at the opening of the new in-vessel plant yesterday. |
The Scheme sets Welsh councils annual limits on the amount of biodegradable municipal waste they can send to landfill each year.
The results announced yesterday were for the second year of the Scheme, which began in October 2004. The figures revealed a 16% gap between landfill rates and the allowances set for the year.
“Good news”
Hailing the achievement by the 22 local authorities in Wales, Mr Jones said: “Today’s figures are good news and prove that Wales is rising to the challenge of better waste management. There are still challenges ahead, though, and we must continue to cut down on the amount of rubbish we throw away which could be recycled, reused or composted.”
Cllr Richard Parry Hughes, chairperson of Waste Awareness Wales and WLGA spokesperson for environment and planning said: “Today’s announcement is testament to the hard work put in by local authorities in Wales to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill.”
LAS
Unlike the English equivalent, Wales' Landfill Allowance Scheme does not allow councils to trade surplus landfill allowances, and councils are threatened with a 200 per tonne fine if they miss their annual targets.
The Assembly government has set allowance levels up until 2009-10, when the amount of biodegradable municipal waste must fall from the current 851,000 tonne amount to no more than 710,000 tonnes.
2005/06 results
Overall, Wales landfilled 170,510 tonnes under the annual limit set for 2005/06, meaning 16.7% of the allowances set for all councils went unused.
The authority with the biggest breathing space compared with its allowance level for biodegradable municipal waste was Monmouthshire. The county was able to landfill 30.2% less waste than permitted by its allowances.
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Other notable performances came from Caerphilly, which landfilled 30% less than its allowance level, Newport (28%) and Flintshire (23.6%). At the other end of the table, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion county councils had just 6% of spare landfill allowances remaining.
In-vessel
The in-vessel opened by Mr Jones yesterday is run by Bryn Compost in Gelligaer, near Caerphilly. The 1.2 million facility is claimed as the first purpose-built in-vessel composting plant in Wales and can process 20,000 tonnes of organic waste each year.
The plant is to process waste collected from 40,000 homes in Merthyr Tydfil and Torfaen.
Alun Price, director of Bryn Compost, said: “We are offering local people and the local authorities a viable option to landfill and the response so far has been excellent. It looks likely that we will even need to expand the facility over the next few years.”
The Bryn Compost plant has received funding from the Assembly government and support from the Wales Environment Trust.
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