[GreenYes] Zero Waste Alliance UK - Burning waste makes for more waste - so tax it

[Gary Liss <gary@no.address>]

Apologies for Cross-Postings

>From: "Ralph & Val Barton" <trinibarton@no.address>
>Subject:  Press Release-Zero Waste
>Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 10:55:10 -0000
>
>PRESS RELEASE...PRESS RELEASE December 2006
>Zero Waste Alliance UK
>
>Burning waste makes for more waste - so tax it.
>Communities and waste recyclers from  across the UK have come together as
>The Zero Waste Alliance in support of a consultative declaration sent to the
>Secretary of State, David Miliband pointing the way forward to
>revolutionising the UK's attitudes to waste:
>    * Switch Subsidies to Food waste Collection & Composting
>    * Set Recycling Targets to 75%
>    * Extend Producer Responsibility
>    * Give Carbon Credits to Recycling & Composting
>    * Recognise Incineration as Disposal
>all & more proposals to stop the dash to burn 
>waste that creates climate changing greenhouse 
>gases (Heat and Power from Waste produces 
>thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases, toxic gases and toxic ash.)
>
>The Declaration "UK Waste Policy - A Bridge Half 
>Built" is prepared by the educational charity 
>company, Zero Waste Alliance UK in consultation 
>with many others.  It recognises advances made 
>since the report "Waste not Want not" by the 
>Government's Strategy Unit on Waste in 2002 for 
>instance by the increase in landfill taxes, but argues that much more needs
>to be done to make the large scale disposal of 
>waste unattractive in favour of  not creating 
>waste[1] and encouraging the production of 
>products that can be safely  re-used, recycled or composted.
>
>Chairman of Zero Waste Alliance UK, Ralph Ryder, 
>says  "We need radical decisions in government 
>to turn the UK from a throw away society to one 
>that conserves the world's resources and reduces 
>greenhouse gases.  Burning waste even with some 
>heat and energy produced solves nothing. It 
>produces greenhouse gases. It encourages the 
>production of waste needed to feed the 
>incinerator. It  produces toxins to air &  land. It wastes valuable
>resources &  energy.
>
>A Zero Waste policy says we need to reduce waste 
>and what is produced should be able to be safely 
>re-used, recycled or composted. Once 
>manufacturers  no longer have a  disposal route 
>to hide behind  they will have to produce safe 
>products. But Government must set the scene to enable  these things to happen"
>
>The proposals in the Declaration include 
>recommending the setting of long term recycling 
>and composting targets of 75% by 2015, pressing 
>for the introduction of the Biowaste Directive 
>and its requirement for kerbside kitchen waste 
>collections, switching government subsidies from 
>PFI schemes to the start up costs of food waste 
>collection and composting, extending carbon 
>credits to recycling and composting, extending 
>Producer Responsibility legislation, research 
>into health effects of pollution and an incinerator tax.
>
>The recommendations in full are as follows: -
>
>1.      Set long term recycling and composting 
>targets of 75% for all local authorities by 
>2015, (and a minimum of 60% for each individual 
>local authority) along with waste minimisation 
>targets, to prevent their crowding out by local 
>and regional long term disposal contracts.
>
>2.       Press the EU to introduce the Biowaste 
>Directive, and its requirement for kerbside 
>kitchen waste collections in all cities, towns 
>and villages with over 1,500 population.
>
>3.      Switch the government subsidy of PFI 
>schemes to the start up costs of food waste 
>collection and composting, as part of the 
>Treasury's forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
>
>4.      Extend the grant of carbon credits to 
>recycling and composting to reflect their impact 
>on the reduction of CO2 emissions generated by 
>the production of virgin materials.
>
>5.      Extend Producer Responsibility 
>Legislation to cover all materials in the 
>household waste stream, and raise the targets 
>for recycling of plastic packaging, glass and 
>metals under existing legislation to those set 
>by the leading countries in Europe.
>
>6.      Recognise incineration as disposal not 
>recovery, in line with the EU Waste Framework 
>Directive and rulings of the European Court of Justice.
>
>7.      Fund a major research programme to 
>identify the hazards of nano particles, 
>particulate aerosols, and brominated flame 
>retardants that arise from the burning of mixed waste.
>
>8.      Introduce an incineration tax of at least £12 per tonne.
>
>9.      Charge incinerator bottom ash at the 
>full level of landfill tax (rather than the £2 a 
>tonne which it currently enjoys by virtue of its 
>unwarranted classification as inert waste) and 
>reduce the landfill tax to £6 a tonne for 
>bio-degradable waste, stabilised to the levels 
>set out in the 2nd draft of the Biowaste Directive.
>
>10. Require compulsory insurance against future 
>pollution and health claims for all disposal and recovery facilities.
>
>Our Declaration concludes
>"What is required is return to the boldness of 
>the Strategy Unit's policy, and a shift of 
>finance and incentives towards composting and 
>recycling. Climate Change policy calls for it. 
>The Government should respect the evidence, free 
>itself from the disposal centred waste industry, 
>and complete the work that was left half 
>finished after the Strategy Unit's Review"
>  See Contact details below
>
>Contact:
>Val Barton, Director, Zero Waste Alliance UK          Tel/Fax: 01434 345 456
>
>Email:  val@no.address         Website:  www.zwallianceuk.org
><http://www.zwallianceuk.org/>
>
>Or Worku Lakew, CEO, Tower Hamlets Community Recycling Consortium (THCRC)
>and is a Director of the National Community 
>Recycling Network (CRN).  Providing recycling 
>services to 80.000 Residents in blocks of flats 
>Worku has a background in economic development 
>and social change as well as urban regeneration 
>and sustainability. THCRC has invented the 
>permanent combination of Outreach work and 
>doorstep recycling and is a strong practitioner 
>of local loop processing working in such areas 
>as glass processing and composting.
>
>Or call     Rob Hill     Chairman of Northlands 
>Park Residents' Association. A community of 
>10,000 people living a quarter of a mile from a 
>proposed 650,000 tonne RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel 
>now sometimes called Solid Recovered Fuel. SRF) 
>manufacturing plant, which has clauses in the 
>waste local plan that could see this yet feed an incinerator.
>
>December  2006
>
>Zero Waste Alliance UK is a company registered 
>by guarantee in England & Wales, number 4452297, 
><http://www.zwallianceuk.org/> Registered 
>Office: 57 Tosson Terrace, Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE6 5LY
>
>[1] Municipal waste generated in England fell by 
>3% 2005/6. Recycling levels have risen to 27%

Gary Liss
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485
www.garyliss.com 

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