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GOVERNMENT ABANDONS PAY-AS-YOU-THROW IN FAVOUR OF INCENTIVES.

Pay-as-you-throw was introduced in the Climate Change Act, and would have allowed local authorities to charge households that generated more than a certain amount of waste. But the Labour Government included a provision that the powers could not be enacted until a series of council pilot schemes had been completed.

A Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesman said “The coalition Government won’t approve any pilot schemes so those powers won’t be enacted.”

Speaking at the extension of the RecycleBank incentive scheme, communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles criticised the Labour plans. “Rather than helping the environment, ‘bin taxes’ would have fuelled fly-tipping and backyard burning,” he said. “The best way to encourage people to recycle is not to punish families but to encourage and reward them for going green. It’s time to rein in the bin bullies and work with local people to build greener and cleaner communities.”

FUTURE FOR AD IN THE UK WILL BE ‘EXPLOSIVE’

Lord Redesdale outlined the current challenges facing the AD industry which will need to be addressed to get the Government’s plans off the ground. He said: “Broadly, there are may be four main challenges: planning, permitting, financing and gas use.”

The financing of AD plants has been beset with problems in recent months, especially in the absence of the grandfathering principle being applied to Renewable Obligation Certificates for AD.

Lord Redesdale believes that although these challenges exist they are all surmountable. He said it was a very exciting time to be in part of the AD industry as he predicts that this country will see an ‘explosion’ of facilities during the next 10 years.

Conservative Party hits out at rivals 'bin tax' plans

Their comments come after the shadow secretary of state for communties and local government, Caroline Spelman hit out at Labour and Liberal Democrat waste plans.

In a statement issued (April 25), Mrs Spelman claimed that there was 'overwhelming evidence' that Labour was planning to 'hit family homes with bin taxes and new waves of bin cuts' - a move which she said was supported by the Liberal Democrats.

She added that the Liberal Democrats were also rolling out monthly rubbish collections in line with advice from government's 'bin quango', the Waste & Resources Action Programme - giving Liberal Democrat and SNP run Fife council as an example.

She said: " If Gordon Brown can cling to power, his bin bullies will impose monthly rubbish collections and make life even harder for hard-working families. Liberal Democrats back Gordon Brown's plans for bin taxes and monthly collections, despite the extra fly - tipping and backyard burning."

"There is a clear choice in this election: Conservatives who will help bring back weekly collections, Labour who imposed fortnightly collections, or Liberal Democrats who are already forcing through monthly bin collections."

Labour

Mrs Spelman's criticism of Labour's policy centred on two reports looking at the feasibility of landfill bans by WRAP and the Green Alliance. The Conservatives said that these both suggested that there was minimal effect from landfill bans alone and that charging schemes might be needed alongside them, and that residual waste should not be collected more than once every fortnight to minimise arisings.

However, a Labour spokesman stressed that it believed decisions on local waste collections, including their frequency, should be taken locally by councils and that they were best placed to understand local needs.

And, he queried how the Conservatives pledge to help re-introduce weekly rubbish collections would be funded. In January, the Conservatives said this would come from existing council budgets, but failed to go into any more detail.

The spokeman said " The conservatives have been committed since 2008 to providing central funding for councils to provide weekly rubbish collections. However, they have yet to set out how much they think this would cost."

Liberal Democrat

The Liberal democrats meanwhile confirmed that the party was planning to "give councils the power to introduce variable waste charging". However, they pointed out that this was one option to help incentivise people to recycle.

And, with regards to fortnightly collections, the party stressed that many Conservative - run councils such as Wiltshire, Bexley, Runnymede, Daventry had already moved to the scheme in a bid to save council taxpayers money.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said " Councils led by all the main parties are trying to incentivise people to recycle and reduce waste going to landfill so less taxpayer's money goes on landfill tax and so that we reduce the need to build massive new landfill sites near people's homes."

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Waste Fines double in five year to top £3m in 2008

Courts made 454 presecutions for waste crimes in 2008, one less than in 2004, but the total value of the fines rose from £1.4m to £3.2m in that period. Waste crimes include flytipping, illegal export of waste, and failing to register with packaging waste recovery schemes.

Southwark Magistrates court in London hit drinks importer Red Bull with the largest-ever waste fine of £261,268. Red Bull had failed to contribute to the recovery and recycling of packaging waste over an eight-year period.

Environment Agency policy advisor Adrian Harding said prosecuting non-compliant companies was important to ensure a level playing field between firms, but said the organisation was not looking at menial transgressions.

"Its about protecting those firms that are doing the right thing. It's not about prosecuting people who've missed registering a tonne of waste, but people who've not contributed for several years" he said.

Mr Harding said that since the Produce Responsibility Obligation (Packaging waste) Regulations were introduced in 2007 there have always been free riders, but they had made a major contribution to reducing waste sent to landfill.

"The UK's approach to the Packaging and Packaging waste Directive is one of the lowest-cost in Europe. The regime is being actively enforced and delivering the environmental outcome."

Liz Parkes, EA head of waste and resoure management said waste regulations were important to protect people's health and the environment.

"This is not about people putting waste in the wrong bin. We concentrate on those individuals and companies whose illegal activities have the potential to cause serious damage to the environment," she said.

UK WASTE PROSECUTIONS

2004 - 466 (25 packaging prosecutions) - £1,424,843
2005 - 514 (31) - £2,215,688
2006 - 441 (53) - £2,202,657
2007 - 510 (67) - £2,664,423
2008 - 454 (56) - £3,156,427

Source: Enviironment Agency

Bedfordshire agrees MRF contract with 'Community Waste' MK

Th County Council is to reduce the amount of recyclable material it sends to the Shanks facility to 10,000 tonnes per year - the minimum amount under the existing 25-year contract - with up to 50,000 tonnes being sent to the Community Waste Facility in Milton Keynes.

The Milton Keynes site, which is over 20 miles away, already handles some of the overflow from Bedfordshire.

The council placed the four-year contract out to tender last year after deciding to increase the range of material it collects, claiming that it would get better value-for-money by using an alterative contractor.

However, council minutes revealed that Bedford borough council Liberal Democrat leader Michael Headley expressed 'disappointment' at a meeting of the county council's Implementation Executive on December 16 that executive members were not involved in the decison to award the contract to Community Waste in light of 'environmental, transportation and reputational concerns'.

In particular, he was fearful the Community Waste was not assured the contract to operate the Milton Keynes MRF beyond spring 2009.

He also highlighted the fact that a contingency plan could see Bedfordshire's recyclable material processed at another Community Waste facility as far away as Oxford.

He said: "The cost implications are very positive but there are a few questions marks over other aspects. We have heard the prospect, that if this organisation does not get the contractat Milton Keynes, our recycling may actually go to Oxford, never mind Milton Keynes."

The contract to operate the Milton Keynes MRF, which is believed to be for between 5 and 15 years in length, is currently out to tender with existing operator Community Waste competing against five other companies.

Materials

Richards Watts, director of environment for Bedfordshire county council, said that the agreement with Community Waste would increase the range of materials the council could sort - in particular mixed plastics.

He said "As part of our objective to improve recycling and reduce the cost of waste disposal, Bedfordshire county council has awarded a recycling contract to Community Waste - utilising its Milton Keynes materials recycling facility, which is one of the most up-to-date in the country."

The contract with Community Waste will see the company process between 30,000 tonnes and 50,000 tonnes of recovered material a year at the Milton Keynes facility, although the firm expects that amount to grow over the length of the contract.

Richard Cutts, director of Community Waste, said he believed that the signing of the deal with Bedfordshire was 'imminent', as it was currently being scrutinised by lawyers.

He claimed that the council has chosen Community Waste because its Milton Keynes MRF was ' one of the premier MRFs in the UK and able to deal with a variety of materials'.

He said "I believe that Bedfordshire wanted a wider range of material and so perhaps it needed to go out to the market place to best see how that might be produced, and we supplied a competitive and substantial bid which was accepted and welcomed."