Speech by Joan Ruddock MP to the Waste Management Finance Forum, London - 24 January 2008
Thank you for your welcome and introduction. I am delighted to be here today, and plan to rush through what I have to say to make sure there is time for questions after I have spoken.
I don’t really want to talk to you today about waste; I want to speak about resources.
But official statistics tell us that each year England generates 100 million tonnes of waste from household, commerce and industry. Much of this, as you know, ends up in landfill where it degrades and generates up to 40 per cent of the UK’s methane – or about 3 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions.
And these calculations don’t even begin to take into account the resources lost or the extra emissions created when those products dumped in landfill are replaced.
It is obvious we cannot continue as we are. Our current consumption and production patterns cannot be sustained. The debate is over. The science is clear. The economic message is stark. Climate change is upon us.
It is now not a question of whether we need to act but what we need to do to stabilise our climate.
Last November, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would continue to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change. He also said that the UK may need to cut its emissions by up to 80%, rather than the ‘60%’ laid out in the Climate Change Bill.
There are many areas that can help meet this climate challenge; energy, homes, transport and of course waste.
Traditional ways of dealing with waste have a considerable carbon footprint, not only from landfill methane emissions but also from the energy and raw materials needed to collect and move it around.
That’s why reducing waste is so important. That’s why everyone should reuse or recycle what they can to save on raw materials. That’s why recovering energy from waste is vital when we can’t reduce, re-use or recycle. And that’s why where possible we should aim to achieve the greatest carbon benefits through combined heat and power.
Achieving these objectives – which were set out in our Waste Strategy published last year - is key to making a real contribution to our climate change and resource efficiency goals. Current UK recycling of paper, glass, plastics, aluminium and steel is estimated to already save more than 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year through avoided primary material production. The measures in the Strategy could cut at least a further 9.3 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent waste emissions each year.
We have already made good progress. With over half the population now considering themselves committed recyclers, recycling rates have increased to 31%. The recycling of packaging waste has doubled from 27% in 1998 to 56% in 2006. Less of most kinds of waste is being landfilled – down from 80 million tonnes annually in 2000/2001 to 67.9 million tonnes in 2005.
Defra recently consulted on the targets for recovery and recycling of packaging waste. We proposed to increase the targets for 2008-2010 and add new targets for 2011-12. I will be making an announcement on the outcome of this consultation very shortly.
We’re increasingly confident that with further improvements like this, we will meet our first EU Landfill Directive target to reduce biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill to 11.2 million tonnes by 2010.
But as ever, more needs to be done to meet our future targets and to make a real impact on the climate challenge. Building on the significant progress we have made to date we need to look for ways to raise our game. Our shared vision needs not only to embrace the short and medium term but also the long-term; only then will we realise our ambitions of waste minimisation and resource efficiency.
This is why the Waste Strategy places a greater focus on waste prevention through a new target to reduce the amount of household waste not re-used, recycled or composted from over 22.2 million tonnes in 2000 to 15.8 million tonnes in 2010 with an aspiration to reduce it further to 12.2 million tonnes in 2020.
Higher national targets have also been set for: the recycling and composting of household waste – at least 40% by 2010, 45% by 2015 and 50% by 2020; and for the recovery of municipal waste – 53% by 2010, 67% by 2015 and 75% by 2020.
But we can’t just set targets. We need leadership and responsibility in all the spheres in which we operate. We need continued commitment from Government, local authorities and the private sector if we are going to meet those targets. And we need investment.
In recognition of the need for local authorities to invest in smaller scale “front end” infrastructure, such as recycling and composting facilities, December’s local government finance settlement included a £185 million Waste Infrastructure Capital Grants fund to be spent over the next three years. London will receive a separate £60m as part of the London Waste and Recycling Fund to be managed by the new London Waste and Recycling Board.
We also need greater commitment from the public. In October Hilary Benn announced that the Climate Change Bill will provide a power for local authorities to pilot incentives for household waste minimisation and recycling. A maximum of five local authorities will be granted permission to pilot the schemes. Defra has committed up to £1.5 million per year over three years to help support the pilots.
Recycling levels are rising, but we still need to do something about the inevitable residual waste left over in our black bins. Some of our European neighbours have seen higher levels of recycling in tandem with high levels of energy recovery.
To this end, in 2006, together with “4ps and Partnerships UK”, Defra set up the Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme. This unit helps local authorities accelerate investment in the large scale infrastructure required for processing residual waste - but importantly without compromising efforts to minimise waste and increase recycling. This extra processing capacity is essential to help reduce the amount of our waste ending up in landfill.
Part of the programme’s remit is to oversee the allocation of the Private Finance Initiative - or PFI - credits to help local authorities build new waste plants. Additional funding for PFI was announced by the Chancellor in last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Our PFI programme will increase to £2 billion over the next 3 years.
Any local authority interested needs to apply to the department before the end of March. We have a team of experienced Transactors available to support authorities through both the application and subsequent procurement process.
We can also assist with non-PFI projects. While PFI has a proven track record in delivering infrastructure, it is not the only solution. A mixed economy of financing and procurement is necessary to lever in the £11 billion of investment we need.
Applicants for PFI credits need to show how their project will support the waste hierarchy. How it will deliver against our long-term national targets for recycling and waste diversion. Projects are now expected to have recycling rates close to, or in excess of the national target of 50% by 2020; also how it fits with the authority’s wider waste strategy, including the local collection methods; whether realistic options for energy recovery have been properly considered; and that, where feasible, combustion maximises the climate change benefit through combined heat and power. All projects will need to demonstrate that they are environmentally and financially sustainable.
We’re already seeing a difference. Recent projects have met this challenge and are becoming more ambitious, yet realistic, when it comes to increased recycling, diverting more waste from landfill, and focusing on low or no waste growth.
Further progress will come from the work of Defra’s New Technologies Demonstrator Programme to drive more environmentally friendly technologies. Solutions like anaerobic digestion, in-vessel composting, and advanced thermal treatments are being investigated and demonstrated to improve investors’ confidence.
The Government’s ambitious climate change agenda needs the waste management industry to broaden its horizon and take advantage of these new technologies and new market opportunities. It also needs to integrate more closely with the energy sector.
In the Energy White Paper we announced plans to triple the amount of electricity from renewables - including energy from waste - by 2015. In November the Prime Minister spoke of the compelling case provided by climate change and energy security needs for even more reliance on renewables. By 2020 one-fifth of all Europe's energy will come from renewables. And the Prime Minister outlined what a huge challenge this would be when he said that “Britain will need to raise very significantly the proportion of our energy from renewable sources and we must start planning for this now ... It will be for the private sector to make the necessary investment but the government will do more to remove the planning and other obstacles that are currently holding renewables back.”
To meet this challenge in the waste sector, as well as demonstrating new technologies, Defra is stimulating the market for Solid Recovered Fuel – or SRF. The Greater Manchester waste management procurement supported by £100 million of PFI credits is a good example. The Laing Viridor consortium will use a variety of Mechanical and Biological Treatment technologies and supply Ineos Chlor in Runcorn with SRF to produce heat and electricity.
Developing this market could have major benefits for the country’s energy-intensive industries – cutting costs and carbon emissions at the same time. Two weeks ago, the government issued a response to the Renewables Obligation consultation. This included proposals directly related to waste and energy activity:
- the deeming and the determination of biomass content;
- neutrality for waste; and significantly
- the treatment of efficiency levels for combined heat and power.
These will now be taken forward in the legislation.
Later this month, Defra will be hosting a consultation event in Birmingham in order to establish the minimum standards to distinguish SRF from untreated municipal solid waste.
While more needs to be done and there is a long way to go, we believe that there are good prospects that sufficient infrastructure can be delivered to meet our obligations under the Landfill Directive.
You will be hearing from members of the Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme team later today, on some of the practical issues that have to be addressed if we are going to ensure that waste management makes its contribution to our climate change challenge. The team will also be running an interactive procurement workshop tomorrow morning.
So in conclusion we do face some big challenges both in the near and long term future.
But to meet these challenges I believe economic and the environmental needs don’t have to be compromised. We all just need to be smarter, more ambitious and more imaginative to achieve more with less.
Local authorities, the waste management sector, construction and engineering contractors, technology providers, investors – in fact all of you in this room today have a vitally important role to play in that process.
Thank you.
Page published: 24 January 2008