Government rules out further landfill waste restrictions in England - for now

The Government today ruled out banning rubbish ranging from food scraps to drinks cans from landfill in England for the time being.

The Environment Department made the announcement as it revealed the UK had met EU targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste being thrown into landfill in 2010.

Responding to a consultation on the issue, launched earlier this year by the previous government, ministers said they were "not minded" to bring in any new landfill restrictions at this stage.

The consultation looked at proposals to ban or restrict materials ranging from paper, wood and garden waste to plastics, metals and leftover food as part of efforts to save resources and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

For example, cans which are recycled can be sold as a commodity but are worthless in the ground, while 20 times as much energy is used to make cans from new raw materials as from recycled cans.

When the measures were proposed, the then environment secretary Hilary Benn said he did not think it was "sensible" that food waste went into landfill, when it could be composted or used to make energy.

But town halls warned they should not have to foot the bill for landfill bans, or force all householders to have a separate food waste bin.

Today, environment minister Lord Henley said: "This government is not minded to introduce further landfill restrictions in England at this stage, but will consider how best to make progress towards the objective of zero waste to landfill, as part of the review of waste policies due to conclude in spring 2011."

Launching the waste review in the summer, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said reducing the amount of rubbish thrown away from homes needed to be made "as easy as possible".

Among the areas the review is looking at is ways to cut the number of wheelie bins and containers people have to deal with to sort their waste and recycling, increasing the frequency of collections and cutting the amount of packaging from consumer goods.

The Environment Department (Defra) welcomed the news based on data from England, combined with figures from the devolved administrations, that the UK will meet EU targets on cutting waste going to landfill in 2010.

Data for 2009 showed that England was throwing away 14.6 million tonnes of biodegradable waste to landfill, compared to the 2010 target of around 21.7 million tonnes, Defra said.

Under the EU directive, the UK must reduce the levels of biodegradable waste going into landfill to 75% of 1995 levels.

Further, more stringent, targets are set for 2013 and 2020.

Lord Henley said: "It is pleasing to see that from the latest data, the UK will meet the 2010 landfill directive target as it shows that people are beginning to realise that we can't continue sending huge amounts of waste to landfill.

"As this Government strives to be the greenest government ever, it will be important that this trend continues as we look to meet future targets."

Gary Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) environment board, said: "Householders should be congratulated for their efforts in recent years to increase the amount of rubbish they recycle.

"Efforts by councils to encourage people to recycle have paid off with the amount of waste sent to landfill falling by 33% since 2000."

He said Britain was running out of space to dump rubbish and cutting the amount going to landfill was good for the environment and council taxpayers who have to pay for landfill tax on every tonne of household rubbish ending up in the ground.

But he said: "Banning certain types of waste going to landfill would require a huge investment.

"At a time when council budgets are under unprecedented pressure it is encouraging that the Government has listened to councils and decided not to go ahead with a ban on landfilling certain types of waste.

"It needs to be up to local authorities to decide how they get rid of people's rubbish.

"This decision will allow councils to keep the flexibility to operate the types of bin collections that work for local people."

Friends of the Earth resource use campaigner Dr Michael Warhurst said: "It's good to hear that the UK is on course to meet its 2010 landfill diversion target - this has largely been achieved by increasing recycling and composting.

"But we should be aiming higher. Some areas of Europe recycle almost twice as much as we do - while the UK dumps and burns £650 million worth of raw materials every year.

"If the coalition is serious about delivering on its promise of being the greenest Government ever, it must ban the landfilling and incineration of recyclable material, which will help cut climate changing emissions and create new jobs."