Many waste companies have come forward to request a larger scale investment from councils to help with recycling and waste management services.
Attention was called when the Environmental Services Association released its annual report. According to the report which covered the 2006-07 year in waste management, the ESA showed that despite increases in the amount of material being successfully recycled, the amount of money being put forth to assist the recycling and waste schemes aren’t in proportion.
Per-Anders Hjort, the past chairman of the ESA, said: “Recycling has quadrupled in the last ten years, but this has not been accompanied by similar increases in spending and investment. Expenditure on waste is still less than 2% of council spending.”
He added: “Local authorities need funds for the next generation of waste management infrastructure and also revenue support for waste services.”
In the report, ESA chief executive Dirk Hazell urged the councils to be apprised of operators’ needs and makes attempts to create “mutually beneficial working relationships”.
He said: “Operators continue to be frustrated by the difficulty in obtaining planning permission for facilities, particularly when these facilities are rejected by the same local authorities that need them to meet their statutory targets.”
Mr Hazell said: “[Over the last year] our former Secretary of State the Rt. Hon David Miliband MP and environment minister Ben Bradshaw MP showed willingness to make decisions with lasting impact: the revised Waste Strategy for England and the associated rise in landfill tax evidence the importance of governmental policy drivers in shaping the market in waste management services.”
To learn more, go to: esauk.org
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