Local councils in England have today been invited to bid for a slice of a £140 million household waste and recycling fund to help them treble recycling and composting to meet 25 per cent targets in 2005/6.

The fund aims to help local authorities deliver their legal obligations to increase recycling.

Forum Response: Environmental Services Association

Dirk Hazell, chief executive of the Environmental Services Association, told ePolitix.com: "The government has wisely decided to concentrate this money on prioritised areas, but the fact that the government has announced this money several times since well before the last general election does not make it anywhere near adequate to enable the UK to comply with existing legal duties under European law. It's about 5 per cent of what is needed to get to average EU standards.

"The government must alert the public to the scale of the challenge ahead, not imply that a sum of money roughly equivalent to the retail cost of one bin liner per person per month can boost the UK's performance. It is precisely this failure to address reality which gave rise to the fridge fiasco. ESA continues to support as a much more realistic initiative the secretary of state's Cabinet Office review of waste strategy launched by the prime minister.

"The UK's spending on municipal waste probably needs to double to £3 billion per year to achieve average EU standards and treble to £4.5 billion per year to achieve the best EU standards. For £1 per person per week, the UK can deliver the average EU standard for municipal waste. If the government has other priorities for public spending, then there is a simple solution: introduce direct charging for municipal waste management services and let ESA's Members get on with the job they want to do."

Forum Response: The Environment Council

Richard Wilson, governance and waste coordinator at The Environment Council, told ePolitix.com: "The Environment Council welcomes the news that the government has finally allocated the £140 million to local councils. This is a positive step towards improving waste management.

"However, the real challenge now is that the appropriate procedures are put in place to ensure all stakeholders in waste management are able to work together to deliver Sustainable Waste Management.

"The Environment Council believes the most creative and effective solutions to such problems can be found through taking a collaborative approach. Such partnerships will enable all to take responsibility for the waste we generate."

Forum Response: Institute of Wastes Management

A spokeswoman for the Institute of Wastes Management told ePolitix.com: "Whilst the Institute of Wastes Management (IWM) welcomes launch of Recycling Fund, it continues to hold the view expressed previously in response to consultation on this issue, that current levels of funding are inadequate for effective delivery of the National Waste Strategies. This is despite, and in contrast to, the statement made by DEFRA that the £140 million household waste and recycling fund will "crush England's waste mountain and boost recycling".

"Following consultation in November, the government announced today that Local Authorities would now be invited to bid for a share of the £140 million fund to help them meet their targets by 2005/6. The money is to be distributed over two years, with a total of £50 million (£25 million each for capital and resource expenditure) available for projects during 2002/03, followed by £90 million (£50 million for capital and £40 million for resource expenditure) being made available in 2003/04. However, IWM is of the view that the levels of funding available to local authorities throughout England are far too low to have any medium or long-term effect on levels of recycling.

"IWM is also concerned that better performing authorities (in terms of recycling rates achieved to date), which are likely to have a higher level of expenditure to achieve their required targets, are effectively to be penalised at the expense of lower performing authorities which are to be prioritised for funding. Whilst the money is to be ring fenced and used for recycling, it is clear that the level of funding available is insufficient to bring about the changes that DEFAR intends from the fund.

"IWM is of the opinion that few in the waste industry would consider the funding opportunities presently available (including Private Finance Initiative, and National Lottery New Opportunities Fund) are sufficient, or indeed appropriate, to address this issue in any way.

"Figures in the tens of billions have been quoted as the minimum needed to develop the necessary infrastructure to implement the national waste strategies and increase recycling. Factors such as low costs to householder for collection and disposal, low levels of disposal charges, and insufficient funding at local level, have all been blamed for the low levels of recycling currently being achieved.

"IWM continues to press for an increase in the level or resources available, in addition to development and expansion of existing sources of funding, including the level of the landfill tax and the amount of landfill tax credits being used to develop sustainable waste management, in addition to further support for the creation of commercial circumstances and return that will attract significant private investment."