Waste plans prompt criticism

Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have been failing to take sufficient action over the past decade, according to a report published by the Commons public accounts committee on Tuesday.

The warning over landfill came as government plans for pilots of controversial pay-as-you-throw rubbish schemes were finally given the go-ahead.

MPs were examining the UK's progress in reducing the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill.

In line with a 1999 European Union directive, figures show there has been a reduction of 2.3 million tonnes between 2003/04 and 2005/06.

But a further reduction of 4.9 million tonnes a year will be required by 2013 and the government has calculated that failure could result in an annual fine of up to £180m.

Defra officials had failed to take any effective action until 2003, MPs said, even though they would have been aware of the directives before they came into being in 1999.

The department had also benefited from a four-year extension because of the UK's historic reliance on landfill, the report added.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said Defra had done little more than issue "no fewer than four vaguely worded consultation papers and strategies on waste management".

He added: "If the UK misses these targets, taxpayers will have to stump up the money to pay a huge fine to the European Commission."

Progress so far has largely been down to public enthusiasm for recycling, with 57 per cent committed to doing their bit, but the MPs said that would not be enough and called on the department to do more in areas such as manufacturers' packaging and waste disposal infrastructure.

Leigh said: "The department must now take the tough decisions and practical steps needed to promote large-scale recycling. This will involve making it clear who is going to pay for the initiatives outlined in its latest strategy, in May 2007.

"It will involve updating its systems for determining just how much progress is being made against targets. And it will involve giving members of the public - over half of whom are committed to recycling - clear guidance on what they can and cannot put into their recycling bins."

Meanwhile plans to allow councils to implement pay-as-you-throw rubbish schemes to encourage recycling have now been given the go-ahead, less than a week after an announcement on the plan was apparently cancelled by Downing Street.

Changes to the draft Climate Change Bill published on Monday allow local authorities to pilot schemes where householders are charged for throwing too much away and rewarded for throwing out less.

The decision last Wednesday to stop the plan being announced prompted speculation that it had been dropped entirely.

And there was confusion over the level of government support for the plan on Monday, as two different versions of the document referred in one case to a full scheme and in the other to pilots.

A Defra spokesman said: "The only thing we are talking about at present is a power to allow local authorities to run pilot schemes."

Number 10 said the issue was "complex" with "lots of different issues that need to be considered".

"It is important that we strike the right balance," said the prime minister's spokesman.

"We have the right mechanisms in place, that is why we announced yesterday there would be some pilot schemes looking at ways in which local authorities can introduce incentives for household waste minimisation."

The spokesman insisted that the schemes would only be at the pilot stage. Specific proposals would be brought forward by local councils, he added.

Shadow local government secretary Eric Pickles said the government had "bottled it" by failing to scrap the tax.

"The Labour government has been caught red handed reverting back to its old ways of burying bad news," he said.

"Bin taxes will harm the local environment by leading to a surge in fly-tipping and toxic backyard burning, yet the government is cynically trying to give this hated tax some political cover by hiding it in its Climate Change Bill."

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Chris Huhne said: "We still have one of the worst recycling records in Europe, and cannot go on filling holes in the ground with rubbish that can contaminate water tables and create high-powered greenhouse gases like methane.

"Anything which gives local councils more power to decide what is appropriate in their area makes sense, as far too many decisions are centralised in Whitehall.