Potential problems with municipal waste statistics have been recently highlighted, particularly in relation to trade wastes collected by local authorities which represent around 11% of local authority waste collections.
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, last month raised the problem of diminishing municipal waste through the reduction of trade waste collections by London Boroughs. Private sector waste collectors were seen to be likely to step into the breach to collect trade waste by direct contractual arrangement with any traders concerned.
Mr Livingstone had indicated that waste advisors were being sent to meet senior officials of the European Commission to raise concerns that the landfill allowance trading scheme (LATS) was being sidestepped by some local authorities (see MoreThanWaste article).
However in reponse to the Mayor's claim, London Councils – a body representing 33 councils in the Greater London area - dismissed what it described as the Mayor of London’s latest effort to justify his attempt to take control of waste disposal in London, as a publicity stunt.
Diminishing household waste?
In a further development, private waste collectors are now gearing up to directly target household wastes, the other component of municipal wastes. This is seen as a business opportunity where householders may be willing to cough up some cash for collections in weeks where the local authority does not collect under the alternate weekly collection system.
In areas of alternate weekly collections, householders may decide to use civic amenity facilities to get rid of the surplus residual waste resulting from alternate weekly collections. Although this appears to be side stepping recycling, at least in this case the material is still counted in municipal waste statistics.
But where an independent contractor offers a service to the householder to take their waste away on alternate weeks, then this ‘residual’ waste is unlikely be picked up by local authorities when collating their statistics.
This again could have an effect on municipal waste statistics dependent on how well new services offered are taken up.
Private collection service in North Yorkshire
What has been decsribed a a pioneering service for residents who have seen their waste collection service reduced to once a fortnight was launched earlier this month in North Yorkshire.
A company called Bin and Gone are offering to collect refuse on weeks where the councils of Hambleton and Richmond do not collect general waste.
The company based at Brompton-on Swale near Richmond is charging householders £90 per year for the service and is said to already have 900 households already signed up. The service is based on the premise that householders do not like their residual wastes hanging around for 14 days.
Richmond District Council currently offers alternate weekly collections to around 60% of residents, 11000 households, and has plans to roll this out further.
A Richmond Council spokesman said:
“There is really no need to pay any extra. Our alternate weekly collections are hugely successful and generally well received, with residents embracing the change.
Comment
Central Government and devolved administrations, together with regional bodies and local authorities are taking great strides to make waste management more sustainable and to meet the targets of the Landfill Directive.
Local authorities cannot really be criticised for trying to protect their residents from the potential effects of large fines from Europe imposed on central Government should landfilling excess biodegradable municipal wastes take place. Reducing municipal trade waste collections, if this is the case, is not thought to be unlawful and helps authorities meet the LATS landfill allowances.
However, if the Mayor of London's suspicions are correct, this is not in the spirit of, nor meets the aims of the Landfill Directive to reduce the landfilling of biodegradable municipal wastes.
Household waste collected independently by contractors is also likely to escape being recorded in a local authority's municipal waste statistics. This represents a further possible seepage of waste tonnages out of official figures, albeit that the effect is likely to be marginal.
But care should be taken when quoting any savings of tonnages of carbon dioxide through prevented landfilling of biodegradable wastes, to make sure that these are real. Landfilling by local authorities of some trade and household wastes, i.e. municipal wastes, replaced by a similar service provided directly by the private sector, does not lead to such environmental improvements. It is important on these issues that we do not simply fool ourselves.