Reforms to the LTCS earlier this year meant that projects in the sustainable waste management categories were no longer able to apply for funding from environmental bodies.
Speaking at the Biffaward awards ceremony today, Mr Morley said: “These reforms do not mean we have disregarded the work done by the environmental bodies.”
He added that the bodies continue to make an important contribution by distributing funds to local environment and social projects but the development of sustainable waste management would now be handled by WIP. “WIP has initiated a Landfill Tax Credits Scheme study to identify projects that will be continued, which will be published by the end of this year,” he said.
The minister emphasised that the focus of WIP's work is to reduce the volume of waste going to landfill: “The UK is committed to achieving our obligations under the European Landfill Directive which means the UK will have to divert 65% of waste from landfill compared to 1995 levels. That’s a big challenge to the UK.”
Minimisation
Speaking later at the event, Mr Morley spoke about the DEFRA figures which show a reduction in municipal waste growth. He said that this is an important step but more must be done.
He told letsrecycle.com that: “2.4% in municipal waste growth is the lowest ever rate of growth but we want to do better than that. We are beginning to have an effect and we are making progress but we want to do better.”
The minister also commented on the role of supermarkets and said that the five major chains are very good at promoting recycling through allowing recycling banks on their sites. But he added that the supermarkets also need to promote minimisation in line with the waste hierarchy.
Awards
The Biffaward Award ceremony recognises the achievements of projects funded by the environmental body which distributes credits from Biffa Waste Services.
At the presentation, the environment minister said: “It is always encouraging to see the huge range of work that is being undertaken by a range of people. Biffaward is one of those successful schemes.”
Winners of the awards included community furniture re-use scheme CREATE for the Research and Development: Sustainable Resource Use category and Global Balance Trust's Rethink Rubbish for the Awareness Raising and Education category.
The overall winner was Amelia Methodist Trust who also won the Community category. The Trust's winning project had received just 2,500 from Biffaward to build a polytunnel on the farm to grow organic produce and for use by adults with learning difficulties.
John Griffith of Amelia Methodist Trust said on accepting the award: “Thank you for the recognitions. Its good to see that the minnows can win sometimes and I say that the money will be put to good use.”
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