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Waste
The European Union gives strategic direction to waste management policy on a number of fronts from implementing the Basel Convention of 1989 on shipments of waste to regulating mining and electrical waste (including fridges and batteries) to setting targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste.
Waste disposal is an increasingly expensive and difficult problem for London. Projections show that the city will be producing 23.6 million tonnes per year by 2020.
Waste Framework Directive
As a Member of the Environment Committee, John Bowis helped to strengthen a Commission proposal for the new Waste Framework Directive in November 2006. The re-worked proposal aims to see waste production stabilised at 2008 levels by 2012. The proposals also encourage recycling and create a binding classification of waste. The Council of Ministers is now forming its position on the proposals.
Batteries Directive
The EU Institutions have finalised proposals on batteries and accumulators - with the aim of reducing the quantities of used batteries going to disposal, by setting collection and recycling targets (2006). The directive lays down labelling requirements indicating their separate collection as well as their heavy metal content.
- More than 650 million portable batteries are sold annually in the UK ;
- The UK is a major producer of battery-powered appliances;
- The average UK household has 21 battery-powered appliances.
XX% of waste portable batteries will have to be collected and recycled after 4 years; this figure will increase to 45% after 8 years. It will require the setting up of collection and recycling schemes for portable batteries. Households will be encouraged to separate used batteries from their waste.
The Conservatives worked to ensure that the collection and recycling targets and timeframes are ambitious yet realistic. The legislation means that we will no longer be able to bury batteries containing substances harmful to the environment, such as cadmium, lead and mercury. The collection targets are very demanding for Britain as our collection rate is currently below 5%.
Fridge Mountains
John Bowis visited a "fridge mountain" in Wimbledon in 2002 and listened to concerns about the failure of the then Labour Merton Borough Council to deal with the borough’s growing fridge mountain.
This was being caused because the Government failed to prepare local authorities in London for the implications of an EU law they agreed to two years before.
The British Government's miserable failure over the EU recycling law meant that there were no facilities in the UK able to deal with fridge recycling. Merton Council, for example, had to send around thousands of fridges to Germany as a result.
John has also highlighted the consequences of a European Directive regarding the recycling of household electrical items and has warned that if the UK is to avoid a situation like the fridge fiasco, the Government must make adequate preparations. He said: "The last thing we want is another fridge fiasco, caused by government incompetence and mismanagement."
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