Huge savings to be made on waste management

Councils spending the most on waste management could save almost half a billion pounds by bringing costs in line with the local authority average, according to the Audit Commission.
In a report released this week, the commission identified wide variations on the amount spent on household waste management across England.
While the majority (64 per cent) of councils spent less than £75 per household, 11 per cent spent over £100 per home.
The report said: “If councils were able to go further and reduce their spending to the average level for authorities with the same responsibilities for household waste management then total spending would have reduced by £464 million. This is equal to 12 per cent of total expenditure on household waste management in 2012/13.”
Using data from its Value for Money Profiles, the commission said that spending on, household waste management fell by £46 million (1.2 per cent) between 2009/10 and 2012/13. Spending on the collection of household waste fell by 16 per cent (£218 million) in real terms while spending on recycling rose by 16 per cent (£109 million).
In 2012/13, English local authorities collected 25 million tonnes of waste, of which 92 per cent was household waste. This was down from 28 million tonnes collected in 2000/01.
Total spending for the management of the household waste element was £3.9 billion during the year, just under 3 per cent of their total revenue spending.
Of the total, around a fifth of the total expenditure was on waste minimisation and recycling.
However, total gross spending by local authorities on household waste management remained largely unchanged from 2009/10 to 2012/13.
The commission estimated that in 2013/14 around 14 per cent of local authority spending on household waste management was allocated to landfill tax paid to central government.
Commission chairman Jeremy Newman said:  “Councils have the power to influence and encourage residents to do the right thing and they control the levels of spending on the range of waste management options available to them. Their choices ultimately affect how well the environment is protected and the quality of waste services residents receive.”
The Local Government Association this week launched a campaign to encourage households to reuse items instead of throwing them out in order to reduce landfill costs.
Clyde Loakes, chairman of the LGA’s Reuse Commission, said: “We want to see a thriving market for reuse goods. To do this we need to make it viable for new reuse businesses to enter the market by offering tax breaks and designing opportunities to reuse goods at the earliest opportunity.”