Getting heated over waste

Always ones to take advantage of a slow news day, the environmental lobby manages to get space in the Western Mail to slag off the Assembly government’s waste strategy which has just completed the consultation stage.

Friends of the Earth Cymru, backed by Greens, argue that including incineration is a backward step and that the approach should be abandoned in favour of waste reduction through recycling. They claim that “parts of Europe, such as Flanders and Germany", are already achieving the 70% recycling target (which WAG says should be reached by 2025) - although they fail to mention that other parts of Europe, notably Holland, employ incineration as a major element in their municipal waste strategies – and use the output as a cost-effective form of heating.

It’s definitely a debate worth having although it might be the wrong one as Assembly officials admit to being frustrated not so much by ‘how’ as ‘who’ within the overall waste strategy. The number of unsuccessful joint ventures between councils and the likely local opposition to whatever methods are eventually employed has seen at least one comment made to the Assembly’s environment committee that it might be better if waste disposal was taken out of the hands of local government altogether. There is no such proposal in the strategy document but experience shows that this is seldom a reliable indicator of intent - or outcome.