Change - why it's needed

For decades, local authorities across the UK have dealt with most household waste by burying it in landfill sites, effectively filling big holes in the ground.  This has to change. 

We now know more about the effects of greenhouse gases. As a result international and UK policy now requires us all to reduce our reliance on landfill.  That's because landfill produces 41% of the country's methane, which is a major greenhouse gas, 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So like every other county in Britain, we must find new ways to deal with our household waste that is left over after recycling and composting.

Buckinghamshire households produce about 238,000 tonnes of waste a year.  Thanks to increasing recycling and composting, the county now recycles 45% of household waste.  Despite this, our efforts to minimise waste and ambitious future recycling targets, the amount of waste which can not be recycled is likely to stay at current levels due to population and household growth in the county.  If you would like to know more about waste, please download the background document below.

To deal with waste, the County and District Councils work together as the Joint Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire.  The Partnership has produced a strategy, about which the public have been widely consulted, committing us to:

• Reducing waste at source as much as possible
• Recycling/composting as much as we can
• Reusing items as much as possible

To complement this we need a technical solution to treat left over waste for three main reasons:

Environmental

It is important we don't just throw away natural resources.  Waste is a resource which can be used to produce energy and reduce our reliance on power generated by polluting, and increasing scarce fossil fuels.  Thus we can help to reduce these greenhouse gases as well as those produced by landfill. 

In respect of emission from EfW plants, the UK’s National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) for 2007 (latest figures) shows EfW contributing a fraction of one per cent of dioxins and particulates to air, whereas industry and traffic account for more than 50% of particulates. 

In September 2009, the Health Protection Agency reviewed the latest scientific evidence on the health effects of modern incinerators and concluded that any potential damage from modern, well-run and regulated incinerators is likely to be so small as to be undetectable. 

There are a number of further publications from NAEI which continue to support this fact including ‘Air Quality Pollutant Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990-2009’.  Many other reports on the NAEI website express the reduction and current minimal levels of the various pollutants from UK waste incinerators.

The Agency's role is to provide expert advice on public health matters to Government, stakeholders and the public. The Environment Agency regulates the operation of EfW facilities through Environmental Permits. Permits set strict controls on how the way waste is brunt to produce energy and ensure emissions are constantly monitored to make sure they are below acceptable limits.

Legal

New EU laws to limit the environmental damage caused by landfill mean we must reduce our biodegradable waste (food, paper, cardboard and garden waste) going to landfill.  The UK must cut this to 50% of 1995 levels by 2013 and to 35% by 2020. We have met our 2010 targets to reduce biodegradable waste going to landfill by 75%. 

Financial

Government tells us how much biodegradable waste we can landfill each year.  If we go over the limit, we could  be fined as much as £150 for every extra tonne.  UK Government can also pass on EU fines to Councils of £500,000 a year for missing targets.  We are also taxed on landfilling waste.  This currently costs council tax payers £48 a tonne but is rising by £8 a tonne each year.  We currently pay over £9 million per year to dispose of our waste at landfill.  If we do not change the way we deal with waste by 2014/15 this cost will have risen to around £14.5 million to Council taxpayers.