‘Carbon Factors’ for Municipal Waste Treatment to be Published from November
28 September 2012 - Starting this November, data showing the carbon impact of municipal waste treatment will be published for the first time.
The metric data report will provide details of the national carbon performance of recycling and waste activities across England, and may also outline regional data.
First unveiled in the Waste Review published in June 2011, the development of the scheme followed from the Government’s interest in promoting the use of a carbon metric to measure the impact of different treatment options for waste.
Once completed, the carbon metric will give each council a ‘carbon factor’ relating to the tonnages of recycling, reuse, composting and residual treatment they carry out.
Each local authority’s ‘carbon factor’ will be based on the data they submit and it will be measured against carbon data taken from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
It is hoped that the carbon metric will cause local authorities to shift their main focus to waste activities with a greater carbon benefit rather than those with the most tonnage of material.
Funding requirements have led to the development of local authority specific carbon reports being placed on hold however – it is currently not yet known when this information will be available.