Shropshire's councils comfortably meet landfill targets

Shropshire's two councils comfortably met stringent Government limits for the amount of waste being sent to landfill - despite developers putting forward controversial incinerators to deal with the county's waste.

A new report by the Environment Agency on Landfill Allowances and Trading Scheme (LATS) for 2009/10, published this month, shows both Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council sent much less waste to landfill than they were allowed to.

Shropshire Council was nearly 20,000 tonnes below its allowance, while Telford & Wrekin Council was more than 3,000 tonnes under.

But Paul Beard, waste contracts manager with Shropshire Council, said: "The LATS figures quoted by the EA show the total amount of biodegradable municipal waste that Shropshire Council was allowed to send to landfill in 2009/10, before facing fines, and the amount of biodegradable waste that we actually sent to landfill that year.

"In 2009/10, 79,251 tonnes of Shropshire's municipal waste was sent to landfill in total, but not all of this is biodegradable, and therefore isn't included in the LATS figures.

"It is important that we pursue alternatives to disposal by landfill to ensure we meet these future allowances and avoid the fines that will be imposed if we exceed them."

Councillor Adrian Lawrence, cabinet member for environment at Telford & Wrekin Council, said his authority was "pleased" residents' efforts were continuing to increase recycling rates, avoiding any fines.

He said: "Our target for 2010/11 is 33,281 tonnes, which means that we have to landfill more than a 1,000 tonnes less than we did in 2009/10 in order to meet the target again. The good news is that our recycling rate is continuing to rise and our residents understand the need to landfill less and help the environment."

Plans to build an incinerator in Telford were scrapped this summer. Bosses at Sita UK said they had no intention of appealing against the decision.

Veolia's plans for a burner at Battlefield in Shrewsbury were rejected in September by Shropshire Council.

But the waste firm is yet to decide whether to appeal.

By Russell Roberts