I didn`t know that
March 4, 2007 by Ken
Filed under Environ-mental
Christopher Booker informs readers of his Notebook in the Telegraph that “In terms of meeting the EU’s targets, the moment when waste disposal counts as “recycling” comes when it is collected and registered for that purpose.”
After that it can be and in many areas, often is simply dumped in landfill sites, there would of course have to be a payment of £21 per ton Landfill Tax to Gordon Brown but the councils will not be fined by Brussels.
Booker explains “The main reason why so much composted green waste now ends up in landfill is that, under last year’s Agricultural Waste Regulations, so much hassle and expense is involved in giving farmers an “exemption” allowing them to spread “waste” on their land. To obtain an exemption, the soil has to be tested, an agronomist must be called in, hefty fees have to be paid, until before long a large farmer may be having to pay tens of thousands of pounds just for spreading compost on his fields.
And who charges those fees and has set up this scheme, the cost of which makes the sensible use of compost so prohibitive that much of it now ends up in landfill? Why, none other than the Environment Agency: the body which is calling for “a united effort to beat the waste cheats”.
