17 February 2006
The government urged councils to incinerate a greater proportion of household and business waste this week as it launched a review of the problem of rubbish disposal.
With England rapidly running low on capacity in its 1,986 landfill sites, authorities are being urged to put greater investment into more environmentally friendly 'energy from waste' programmes.
The strategy calls for 67% of waste to be recycled, composted or recovered through incineration by 2015. The proposal would increase the target for recycling and composting to 45%, with the remaining 22% being met by incineration and other energy recovery methods.
Local environment minister Ben Bradshaw, speaking at the launch of the review's 12-week consultation period, said progress had been made since the strategy was introduced in 2000.
'Recycling and composting of waste has doubled,' Bradshaw said. 'But there is more to do in order to achieve our aim to reduce our rising streams of waste and bury less of it in landfills.'
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