Recycling The Landfill Problem
The UK currently produces 28 million tonnes of municipal waste every year - 83% of which ends up in landfill. Municipal waste includes all waste under the control of local authorities or agents acting on their behalf, and around 60% of the municipal waste stream is biodegradable. Biodegradable waste is mostly food waste, garden waste and paper, and this decays anaerobically in landfill sites to produce methane, a Potent greenhouse gas. There are many other problems associated with landfill including leaching (the leaking of potentially toxic liquids into soil and groundwater), litter, pests and the waste of valuable, recyclable goods.
The production of household waste is suggested to be increasing at a rate of 3% per year, although much of this may be waste diverted from other sources (e.g. commercial waste) rather than �new� household waste.
EU Legislation
The EU Landfill Directive sets targets for the reduction of biodegradable waste sent to landfill as 75% of the 1995 level by 2010, 50% of the 1995 level by 2013 and 35% of the 1995 level by 2020. This means that by 2020 the UK only needs to divert 40 per cent of household waste from landfill to meet the legal requirements of the Landfill Directive, as long as all of this is biodegradable waste. However, it will also need to divert other waste from landfill to meet targets within the Packaging Directive and also a new Directive on electronic waste. In practice this means around 55 per cent of waste will need to be diverted from landfill by 2020.
The Government's Waste Strategy Targets for Wales
The National Assembly has set some Wales specific targets as follows:
By 2003/04 achieve at least 15% recycling of municipal waste with a minimum of 5% composting and 5% recycling;
