DOVE

Burning waste makes for more waste - so tax it

Burning waste makes for more waste - so tax it

Communities and waste recyclers from across the UK have come together as The Zero Waste Alliance in support of a consultative declaration sent to the Secretary of State, David Miliband pointing the way forward to revolutionising the UK's attitudes to waste.

Switch subsidies to food, waste collection and cmposting ……. Set recycling targets to 75% …… Extend producer responsibility …… Give carbon credits to recycling and composting …… Recognise incineration as disposal - More proposals to stop the dash to burn waste that creates climate changing greenhouse gases
(Heat and Power from Waste produces thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases, toxic gases and toxic ash.)

The Declaration "UK Waste Policy - A Bridge Half Built"
is prepared by the educational charity company, Zero Waste Alliance UK in consultation with many others. It recognises advances made since the report "Waste not Want not" by the Government's Strategy Unit on Waste in 2002 for instance by the increase in landfill taxes, but argues that much more needs to be done to make the large scale disposal of waste unattractive in favour of not creating waste and encouraging the production of products that can be safely re-used, recycled or composted.

Chairman of Zero Waste Alliance UK, Ralph Ryder, says
"We need radical decisions in government to turn the UK from a throw away society to one that conserves the world's resources and reduces greenhouse gases.

Burning waste even with some heat and energy produced solves nothing. It produces greenhouse gases. It encourages the production of waste needed to feed the incinerator. It produces toxins to air & land. It wastes valuable resources & energy.

A Zero Waste policy says we need to reduce waste and what is produced should be able to be safely re-used, recycled or composted. Once manufacturers no longer have a disposal route to hide behind they will have to produce safe products.

But Government must set the scene to enable these things to happen"

The proposals in the Declaration include recommending the setting of long term recycling and composting targets of 75% by 2015, pressing for the introduction of the Biowaste Directive and its requirement for kerbside kitchen waste collections, switching government subsidies from PFI schemes to the start up costs of food waste collection and composting, extending carbon credits to recycling and composting, extending Producer Responsibility legislation, research into health effects of pollution and an incinerator tax.

The recommendations in full are as follows: -

1. Set long term recycling and composting targets of 75% for all local authorities by 2015, (and a minimum of 60% for each individual local authority) along with waste minimisation targets, to prevent their crowding out by local and regional long term disposal contracts.

2. Press the EU to introduce the Biowaste Directive, and its requirement for kerbside kitchen waste collections in all cities, towns and villages with over 1,500 population.

3. Switch the government subsidy of PFI schemes to the start up costs of food waste collection and composting, as part of the Treasury's forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.

4. Extend the grant of carbon credits to recycling and composting to reflect their impact on the reduction of CO2 emissions generated by the production of virgin materials.

5. Extend Producer Responsibility Legislation to cover all materials in the household waste stream, and raise the targets for recycling of plastic packaging, glass and metals under existing legislation to those set by the leading countries in Europe.

6. Recognise incineration as disposal not recovery, in line with the EU Waste Framework Directive and rulings of the European Court of Justice.

7. Fund a major research programme to identify the hazards of nano particles, particulate aerosols, and brominated flame retardants that arise from the burning of mixed waste.

8. Introduce an incineration tax of at least £12 per tonne.

9. Charge incinerator bottom ash at the full level of landfill tax (rather than the £2 a tonne which it currently enjoys by virtue of its unwarranted classification as inert waste) and reduce the landfill tax to £6 a tonne for bio-degradable waste, stabilised to the levels set out in the 2nd draft of the Biowaste Directive.

10. Require compulsory insurance against future pollution and health
claims for all disposal and recovery facilities.

Our Declaration concludes -

"What is required is return to the boldness of the Strategy Unit's policy, and a shift of finance and incentives towards composting and recycling. Climate Change policy calls for it. The Government should respect the evidence, free itself from the disposal centred waste industry, and complete the work that was left half finished after the Strategy Unit's Review"

See Contact details below

Contact:
Val Barton, Director, Zero Waste Alliance UK - Tel/Fax: 01434 345 456
Email: Val Barton
Website: www.zwallianceuk.org

Or Worku Lakew, CEO, Tower Hamlets Community Recycling Consortium (THCRC) and is a Director of the National Community Recycling Network (CRN)

Providing recycling services to 80,000 residents in blocks of flats, Worku has a background in economic development and social change as well as urban regeneration and sustainability. THCRC has invented the permanent combination of Outreach work and doorstep recycling and is a strong practitioner of local loop processing working in such areas as glass processing and composting.

Or call Rob Hill, Chairman of Northlands Park Residents' Association.

A community of 10,000 people living a quarter of a mile from a proposed 650,000 tonne RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel now sometimes called Solid Recovered Fuel - SRF) manufacturing plant, which has clauses in the waste local plan that could see this yet feed an incinerator.

December 2006

Zero Waste Alliance UK Is a company registered by guarantee in England & Wales, number 4452297
Registered Office: 57 Tosson Terrace, Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE6 5LY
www.zwallianceuk.org