Drive for recycling launched to tackle rising cost of landfill tax

Hull and East Riding councils have launched a review of their Joint Sustainable Waste Management Strategy, which will guide the management of household waste for the next eight years.

As part of the review, the councils are proposing eight aims along with targets and actions for achieving them.

The targets include:

Recycling and composting between 60 and 65 per cent of household waste by 2020

Reducing the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 20 per cent of the 1995 level of 97,376 tonnes by 2015/16, and to 15 per cent by 2020/21

Encouraging residents and businesses to become responsible for the waste they create.

As well as limiting the region’s impact on the environment, at stake is the chance to avoid spiralling costs of sending excess waste to landfill.

Last year, East Riding Council sent 90,000 tonnes of unrecycled waste to landfill, for which it paid a landfill tax of £56 per tonne, or more than £5m. In two years the charge is set to rise to £80 per tonne, which would incur a penalty of £7.2m based on last year’s figures.

In the current climate of public spending cuts, the councils would prefer to redirect any savings into other hard-pressed services.

The councils have published a “handbook” summary of the review, which can be downloaded from their waste and recycling site, www.target45plus.org.uk.

East Riding Council leader Stephen Parnaby said: “Over the past five years the amount of waste generated is down, recycling and composting performances are up, and we have cut the amount sent to landfill.

“Without the enthusiasm of our residents, local businesses and other stakeholders, none of this would have been possible.

“We must now look ahead knowing that we face some challenges, the pressures on our budgets being just one. But there is much to be encouraged about and in the handbook we list the ways in which we will provide value-for-money services and facilities to manage waste through to 2020.

“We outline eight aims which we see as being central to managing waste in the coming years, with associated targets and actions, many of which depend on our partnership with our stakeholders to achieve.

“These include a recycling and composting rate of at least 60 per cent and a determination to reduce the amount of waste we are sending to landfill.”

He added: “With the tax on every tonne of waste sent to landfill costing £56, rising to £80 within two years, there has never been a greater incentive to reduce the amount we send. So, many of the aims, targets and actions in the review are about finding ways of putting waste back to work.

“Your views are vital in helping us to ensure we provide the services you need and in the ways you want.”

The recycling and composting target would be 65 per cent in the East Riding and 60 per cent in Hull, because there are bigger gardens in the East Riding and more flats and apartments in Hull.

The current rate in the East Riding is 53 per cent, more than double the 2006 rate of 24 per cent.

Hull Council leader Steve Brady said: “Waste affects all of us, as individuals, at home, at work and as organisations. It also poses challenges as to how we can manage it in ways which minimise environmental and economic impact.

“Over the last five years, we have significantly cut the level of waste sent to landfill and notably increased the amount sent for recycling and composting. None of this would have been possible without the support and commitment of residents and businesses.”

The closing date for submissions is Friday, April 6.