Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Eighth Report

8  PRIORITY WASTE STREAMS

75. A vast amount of waste is produced in this country every day, and the rate of production is still rising. We were greatly encouraged by the Strategy Unit's emphasis on waste minimisation, but that focus seems to have been somewhat lost in the Government's response. Until the principles of sustainable resource use and waste minimisation are embodied in Government policy and action, waste disposal will continue to be a growing problem. In the face of such a challenge, the Government should prioritise those wastes that cause the greatest damage to the environment when they are disposed of, or whose recycling represents the greatest savings in energy and material use compared to use of the virgin material.

Biodegradable waste

76. Biodegradable (organic) waste is important because it represents a high proportion of household waste and because when disposed of in landfill it produces the greenhouse gas methane. Conversely, when managed well, biodegradable waste can be used to make valuable high quality compost, which in turn can reduce our reliance on peat-based composts and can be used as a soil improver.

77. The difficulty with this waste stream is that household biodegradable waste normally contains products of animal origin. Since the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001, the risks posed by animal by-products persisting in compost used on agricultural land have been highlighted. The Government rightly judges that minimising risks to human and animal health should be the first priority and has amended the Animal By-Products Order (SI 1704, 2001) to reflect this. This Order will be superseded by the EU Regulation laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption (EC/1774/2002), which will impose new controls on animal by-products from 1 May 2003. However, once again the Government has been slow to clarify the meaning of the Regulation and has left those who will be most affected uncertain of how to proceed.

78. The Composting Association expressed concern that animal by-products regulation was being dealt with by the Animal Health Division in Defra and that therefore the waste management aspects were poorly understood. The Association felt that some of the proposals "have been translated from rendering industries, the way abattoirs work, not in the way composting works and waste management works" and that the implications of the legislation have "not been clear at all and it has been extremely ambiguous."[85]

79. Alternative methods of dealing with biodegradable waste are more expensive but may be preferable for waste containing products of animal origin such as kitchen waste. However, once again Defra has been slow to issue guidance. The LGA said "we still await clarity on how that by-product [of anaerobic digestion] […] will be classified in the UK in relation to its future use."[86] Defra must ensure that regulations and guidance on the treatment of biodegradable waste are made available as soon as possible and that it makes every effort to minimise the negative impact of such regulations on the composting industry.

80. Kerbside collections of kitchen waste and paper may prove to be essential if England is to meet its landfill targets. We would expect the paper to be recycled, but the choice between home composting and central composting depends on local circumstances.

81. Home composting can be an eminently sustainable way of dealing with garden waste where residents have the space, knowledge and willingness to carry it out. However there is little incentive for local authorities to encourage home composting at present. Green waste collections that are centrally composted count towards councils' recycling figures but home composting does not. The Government told us that this is because "there is no way of checking systematically whether it is happening and whether it is being done to the appropriate standard".[87] We urge the Government to look again at ways of recognising success in promoting home composting in local authorities' waste performance figures.

82. The European Commission is expected to produce a Biowaste Directive soon, which will require the separate collection of organic waste. At the same time the Commission and Defra are each working on soil strategies to address loss of soil nutrients and declines in soil structure. This is an opportunity for Defra to integrate its soil and organic waste strategies and to provide a springboard for an internationally competitive composting industry to export its expertise. We recommend that it takes the opportunity.

Hazardous waste

83. Hazardous wastes are by their nature the most likely to cause damage to human health and the environment. The Government should prioritise waste minimisation, producer responsibility and safe treatment for these wastes.

84. We undertook an inquiry into hazardous waste in 2002.[88] At the time, we expressed concern that the Government was ill-prepared for the diversion of hazardous wastes from landfill that is required under the Landfill Directive and recommended that a hazardous waste forum be established to address the problem. Such a forum was set up, but the Environmental Services Association informed us that it has met only once since it was set up and that "in reality we are no farther forward since last summer."[89]

85. The Environment Agency told us that the number of landfill sites that will accept hazardous waste is expected to fall from 200 to about 25 by 2004.[90] This leaves very little time to ensure that either hazardous waste production is drastically cut, or that there are sufficient alternative treatment and disposal facilities available. In its response to this report, Defra should set out the progress it has made in preparing for next year's reduction in hazardous waste landfill capacity and also the activities of the hazardous waste forum.

Dry recyclable waste

86. Recycling is not an end in itself, but rather a tool to encourage, among other things, greater resource efficiency. Recycling certain material streams offers greater environmental benefits than others, but so far Government recycling targets have only been weight-based. The LGA said "if we had material-specific targets, then we would direct our attention more towards the aluminium - very recyclable - and certain types of plastic - very recyclable".[91] At present, many authorities instead focus their attention on heavier categories of household waste. Where local authorities introduce collection of garden waste for large-scale composting, this can have the perverse effect of increasing the amount of waste entering the municipal system, even though their recovery figures are improved.

87. Recycling aluminium represents a great energy saving compared to extraction of the raw material. Paper and card make up a significant fraction of household waste and should be diverted from landfill because they are biodegradable. Introducing a separated collection scheme for paper can be one of the easiest first steps for local authorities,[92] and has the advantage of getting people accustomed to sorting their waste before a broader kerbside scheme is introduced.

88. We recommend that the Government move towards material specific recycling targets, with an emphasis on those materials whose recycling offers the greatest environmental benefit.

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85   Q 259. Back

86   Q 226. Back

87   Q 396. Back

88   EFRA Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2001-02, Hazardous Waste, HC 919 and Eleventh Special Report of Session 2001-02, Hazardous Waste: Government's reply to the Committee's Eighth Report of Session 2001-02, HC1225. Back

89   Q 291. Back

90   Ev 104, para 1. Back

91   Q 222. Back

92   Q 183. Back

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Prepared 22 May 2003