"The Government’s claims that London is ahead of the national average on reducing the amount of municipal waste we dump in landfill sites, has been given as a major reason for not agreeing to the establishment of a Single Waste Disposal Authority to co-ordinate London’s waste. It is now clear that that the figures being used by the Government are incorrect"
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
Waste advisors are being sent by Ken Livingstone to meet senior officials of the European Commission to raise concerns that the landfill allowance trading scheme (LATS) is being sidestepped by some local authorities.
Waste materials previously classed as ‘municipal waste’ are continuing to be sent to landfill sites in the home counties through the private commercial waste sector according to the London Mayor.
This is against the spirit of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) which is to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill and the Mayor considers that this could be an abuse of the scheme.
Mr. Livingstone recently suggested that official figures, which indicate that less rubbish is being deposited in landfills, were "totally misleading". Defra’s municipal waste management statistics show an apparent drop in London's landfilled waste from 2.856 million tonnes to 2.692 million tonnes in the first year of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS).
Over the same period household waste being collected has risen, while trade waste being collected by London boroughs has dropped by 17 per cent. This fall is reflected in the same percentage reduction for England as a whole. The Mayor’s office says that in addition, the total amount of waste (municipal and commercial) landfilled at sites around London accepting the Capital’s waste, seems to have risen by 1.5 million tonnes since 2003/4.
" As the Mayor should be aware – although perhaps he isn’t – any commercial waste collected by private sector organisations on behalf of local authorities is still considered to be municipal waste and must be reported as such"
Cllr Daniel Moylan, Chairman of the London Councils Transport and Environment Committee
The Mayor considers that a large amount of the reduction in municipal waste has been achieved by London local authorities either selling off their trade waste portfolios or pricing themselves out of their commercial waste sector to avoid LATS penalties (up to £150 a tonne).
This could have resulted in the private sector stepping into the breach by collecting the same trade waste and landfilling it in the South-East resulting in the waste falling outside municipal categorisation.
Most commercial waste in the Capital is collected by private sector companies. Businesses have the freedom to choose their refuse collector and most signed contracts with private sector operators, which under current rules, are often able to offer a cheaper price. Trade waste makes up 21% of the total waste collected by councils in the capital, while the England average is around 11%.
The incentive for local authorities to reduce or drop trade wastes from municipal waste collections also applies across the rest of England. There is some support for Mr Livingstone’s stance when looking at the Defra Municipal Waste statistics, where the trade wastes element of municipal wastes arisings shows an overall decrease of 670,000 tonnes (17%) in total for England between 2004-05 and 2005-06, despite an upward trend prior to 2005-06.
A graph of trade waste arisings can be seen by clicking the link below.
All things being equal, this reduction in municipal trade waste suggests a substantial economic downturn in 2005-06 which was not the case. Although the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) did show a reduced growth in 2005 to less than 2% at one stage, the growth was nevertheless positive (Inflation Report May 2007 from the Bank of England). This implies other factors are effective across England.
The overall reduction in municipal wastes being deposited in landfill in 2005-06 relative to the previous year was 1,949,000 tonnes. It can be seen that the 670,000 tonnes reduction in municipal trade wastes collected for England represents 34.4% of this total. However up to 50% of the trade waste could have been recycled suggesting that the effect on landfill tonnage reductions will be between 17% and around 30% for England as a whole depending on whether lost trade waste was readily recyclable or not.
The problem arises because the Landfill Directive refers to reductions in Municipal Waste which includes trade wastes as well household wastes collected by waste authorities. Where these wastes are collected by a private company under contract to a waste authority, the material would be still classed as municipal waste and included in Municipal Wastes statistics collated by the Government. However where a private contractor collects former municipal waste under contract directly with a trader, this falls out of the statistical system and would not be included as municipal waste. This appears to represent something of a 'loophole'.
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said:
“The Government’s claims that London is ahead of the national average on reducing the amount of municipal waste we dump in landfill sites, has been given as a major reason for not agreeing to the establishment of a Single Waste Disposal Authority to co-ordinate London’s waste. It is now clear that that the figures being used by the Government are incorrect.”
Mayor’s campaign for single waste authority
Mr. Livingstone concluded:
“I see a Single Waste Disposal Authority as an important step forward in tackling catastrophic climate change. We would be able to curb waste being transported from one side of London to the other and would be able to put more emphasis on recycling and new technologies that would capture heat and produce biofuels and hydrogen from London’s rubbish.”
The Mayor is asking peers to support Lord Whitty's amendments to the Greater London Authority Bill to set up a London Single Waste Authority. The Bill is currently under consideration in the House of Lords.
London Councils’ response
In response to the Mayor of London’s claim, London Councils – a body representing 33 councils in the Greater London area - dismisses what it describes as the Mayor of London’s latest effort to justify his attempt to take control of waste disposal in London, as a publicity stunt.
London Councils considers that the Mayor has recently drawn attention to a small decrease in commercial waste being collected by London’s boroughs which has coincided with an increase in waste being landfilled in counties surrounding London. The body considers that the Mayor has offered this as ‘evidence’ that London’s local authorities are circumventing landfill targets by sending municipal waste to landfill sites outside of London via the private waste sector.
The organisation says that “this is categorically not the case”.
Chairman of the London Councils Transport and Environment Committee, Cllr Daniel Moylan, said:
“As the Mayor should be aware – although perhaps he isn’t – any commercial waste collected by private sector organisations on behalf of local authorities is still considered to be municipal waste and must be reported as such.
“This aside, his arguments are undermined by his own figures. These show that the increase in commercial waste being sent to landfill is far greater than any reductions in the amount of commercial waste collected by London’s boroughs. How can he possibly draw a direct link between the two?
“London’s boroughs are meeting all their legal obligations - and rising to the twin challenges of reducing waste sent to landfill and improving recycling. The Mayor’s time would be better spent supporting the boroughs’ efforts and initiatives instead of continuously undermining them.