Report Confirms Welsh Councils Exceeding Expectations for Meeting Landfill Targets
31 August 2012 - The Environment Agency Wales has today announced that all 22 of their councils have over achieved their targets for the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill in 2011/12.
Titled the ‘Report on Landfill Allowances Scheme (LAS) Wales 2011/12’, data demonstrated that between April 1 2011 and March 31 2012, all Welsh councils collectively sent 389,738 tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) to landfill.
This represents 29% less than their 2011/12 allowance of 550,000 tonnes and a 54% reduction in the amount of BMW sent to landfill. The report further reveals that Welsh councils collectively met their 2013 target a year early.
Their success marks the significant progress made since the Landfill Allowances Scheme was introduced in Wales in 2004 to help the country meet its obligations under the EU Landfill Directive.
Welsh Environment Minister John Griffiths commented on their success: “The figures show that councils are making significant progress in changing the way we deal with our waste. Burying all our rubbish in the ground and leaving it to rot is no longer an option – it uses up our precious land and damages our environment - and so it is essential that we to build on this progress and continue to meet the challenging EU targets right up to 2020.”