| MP Speaks Garbage in Parliament |
| Friday, 29 February 2008 | |
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Southport's Lib Dem MP John Pugh took part in a debate in Parliament this week about the way the UK deals with it's waste - and dealt with an issue that has divided Southport in recent months. Recycling rates for the UK are amongst the lowest in Europe - a record Dr Pugh described as "Shamefully poor" - and it is a desire to change this which is at the heart of such controversial schemes as Alternate Weekly Collections.
One problem is the amount of waste the UK sends to landfill sites; if we continue using landfill sites at the same rate as we are now, we will run out of space within 12 years. Were this not a sufficient reason for change by itself, councils also have a financial imperative; 'landfill tax' is designed to escalate over time, which makes it ever more expensive to send waste to landfill. Secondly a Government imposed directive requires councils to reduce the amount of landfill they create by 2010 - with heavy fines (which would ultimately be paid by council tax payers) being levelled against those that fail. Dr Pugh raised the point that schemes such as the AWC can have a positive impact in this fight - but only when implemented correctly. He first referred to a question he had tabled to the Government asking whether AWC could be shown to have a positive effect, and was told that the Local Government Authority believed that it could: "on average local authorities that have alternate weekly collections have 25% higher recycling rates than those that do not." Despite this however, proving a direct link between AWC and higher recycling is difficult - the latest Select Committee report for instance concludes that there isn't one. This conclusion, said Dr Pugh, "mystified the waste industry, and the experts... because the evidence seems to show that 19 of the top 20 recycling councils use AWC." Southport's MP then explained the issue as follows: "The AWC is not a necessary or sufficient condition for a high recycling rate. It is not necessary because the odd borough—usually a very middle-class borough—sometimes has high recycling rates, without the alternate weekly collection. Those are the exceptions, however. The AWC is not a sufficient condition because some local authorities introduce it so badly that it does not significantly boost recycling rates; the expected jump in rates does not happen. "That is the fact; but the same is true of the connection that can be made between lung cancer and smoking. People do not need to smoke to get lung cancer; it is not a necessary condition. Furthermore, some people who smoke, such as my 86-year-old aunt, who has smoked 20 a day since she was about 16, do not get lung cancer—at least, as far as we know she has not got it. Nevertheless, smoking increases the probability of lung cancer, and the evidence seems to suggest that AWC increases the probability of higher recycling rates, because it influences choices. "We can all choose to be environmentally virtuous and recycle as much as we can, but we do not invariably do so... our choices are influenced by our opportunities, and if our opportunities to recycle exceed our opportunities to dump, we tend to recycle more." He also recognised the problems AWC can experience - problems many Southport residents have first hand experience of; what to do about areas with large areas of flats or houses in multiple occupation for example, or the issue of how to recycle materials that are light (such as plastics) which do not contribute much to a council trying to reduce the weight of waste that it sends to landfill. Dr Pugh argued in favour of councils being granted the power to implement tailor made solutions to these problems, rather than a 'one size fits all' approach being handed down from Whitehall. He concluded that AWC has the potential to be a useful weapon in Britain's fight to recycle more, but only if it's implemented in a competent manner, and residents educated about the changes it brings and the benefits it provides: "We have a real problem in this country with the amount of waste we produce." said Dr Pugh this morning. "AWC has shown that it can have a positive effect on the amount that we recycle, but the problems when it is implemented poorly have often overshadowed the benefits it can bring. Politicians, councils, campaigners and the media need to do more to publicise the success AWC achieves in terms of recycling, as well as the problems we would face is we continue to be 'landfill junkies' ." |