English WDAs meet LATS limits - provisionally (12/10/2006)

According to an interim statement from DEFRA, all waste disposal authorities in England have successfully met their LATS limits for the first year of the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme. 

In addition, the Government had a target to recycle and compost 25% of household waste in England by 2005/06 and this has been easily exceeded according to provisional statistics.  The figures for households in England show that they recycled 27% of their waste during 2005/06 which was 4% more than in the previous year.

Local Environment Quality Minister, Ben Bradshaw said:-

“This is a terrific achievement by the public and local authorities. Recycling makes a vital contribution to tackling climate change and keeping council tax down. We have nearly quadrupled recycling since 1997. But we need to double it again as part of our battle against dangerous climate change and to hit landfill diversion targets.

He continued, “Local authorities have worked hard to increase recycling 4% in just the last year, but there is still an unacceptably big gap between the best and worst performers.

Mr Bradshaw concluded, “Local authorities should be congratulated for making a success of the landfill allowances trading scheme. This is an important first step. The more biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) that is diverted from landfill and recycled the quicker we will meet our 2010 target to reduce BMW to 11.2m tones, 75% of that produced in 1995.

The individual audited recycling rates for authorities will be available later this year.

Provisional Regional recycling/composting of household waste