Rubbish trading scheme to cut waste at landfill sites

‘Rubbish trading’ is the Government’s latest response to Britain’s waste crisis. Local councils will now have to buy and sell permits among themselves if they want to dump rubbish.



The UK newspaper the Independent reports that this will provide an incentive to cut waste councils send to landfill: Council A has got its waste down and has permits to spare, so sells them to less successful Council B.

The scheme, to be brought forward in a new Waste Bill, is thought to be the first of its kind in Europe.

It is a direct response to the EU Landfill Directive, which requires drastic reduction, and soon, in the amount of British household rubbish dumped in holes in the ground.

Biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill must be cut by 25 per cent on 1995 levels by 2010, by 50 per cent on 1995 levels by 2013, and by 65 per cent of 1995 levels by 2020.

“Landfill permit trading will force local authorities to reduce landfill and give them a powerful incentive to ratchet up recycling fast,” said the Environment minister Michael Meacher.

Friends of the Earth’s senior waste campaigner, Mike Childs, said: “This is a revolutionary way for the Government to force local authorities to deliver on EU waste laws.

“It will reward those local authorities which move away from dumping waste in polluting landfills and penalise those who continue to do so.”

But he added: “There is a danger that this could encourage the building of incinerators.”