North West Regional Technical Advisory Body 3rd Waste Management Monitoring Report Working towards sustainable waste management in the North West August 2007 Contents Foreword . .2 Executive summary . .3 1. Introduction . .4 2. Municipal waste . .7 3. Commercial and industrial waste . .15 4. Construction, demolition and excavation waste . .19 5. Management of waste at facilities and sites . .20 6. Fly-tipping and enforcement . .27 7. Special waste . .29 8. Agricultural waste . .32 9. Radioactive waste . .33 10. Identification of waste management facilities of national, regional and sub-regional significance . .34 Glossary . .35 Abbreviations . .36 Technical Appendices 1. Additional tables and figures . .38 2. Progress report on implementation of the North West Regional Waste Strategy Action Plan . .44 Photo credits Front cover top: Merseyside Objective 1Programme Front cover bottom: Envirolink Northwest Back cover top: David Jones Photography/Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 3rd Annual Monitoring Report – Working towards sustainable waste management in the North West 1 August 2007 Foreword The North West Regional Technical Advisory Body (NWRTAB) is (Environment Agency). This has produced a report with broader publishing its 3rd Annual Monitoring Report. This year we have scope and hopefully a better read. sought to broaden the appeal of the document and extend its scope The report covers a period of considerable activity on both policy to encompass matters wider than just core statistics about waste making and development and practical waste management, which activity in the North West. includes: The core purpose of the NWRTAB is to collect, collate and interpret o Movement of the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) through its data and other information about waste activity in the region. In Examination in Public (for which the Independent Panel’s Report producing this report the NWRTAB has sought to refocus on those has already been published), which included a dedicated session core objectives. It is still surprisingly difficult to obtain good reliable on waste and on to its final stages. data on waste activity, which can readily be collated and reconciled, but the picture is becoming clearer each year. What this improving o Substantial steps taken by all 5 major Waste Disposal Authorities picture does is to confirm that the North West shares many of the (WDAs) to put in place new municipal waste management same characteristics, and hence challenges, in waste and its systems in their areas which will create a new waste management management that are driving forward both the national and European climate in the region. agendas towards sustainable waste management. o Publication of recycling rates for municipal waste, which again This report looks to capture the ‘headline’ characteristics, and key showed substantial improvements. challenges facing the North West, its constituent authorities, o Publication of the revised Waste Strategy for England 2007 regulators and waste industry. (WS2007). We have also sought to engage the wider NWRTAB membership in The NWRTAB, has very few resources to call on, other than the the preparation of the report. Thanks are due in particular to wealth of experience and knowledge of its members. It could not do Catherine Monaghan from North West Regional Assembly (NWRA) its work without the financial and personnel support provided by the who has acted as NWRTAB Secretary for most of the period under NWRA, and the support of the membership’s employers - review, and to her successor, Matthew Wilkinson, together with Peter government departments, planning authorities, WDAs, Environment Greifenberg, the NWRA’s external technical advisor. The writing and Agency, North West Regional Development Agency and editing of the actual text was augmented by a group of RTAB Environmental Services Association (ESA) members - and also the members Marcus Hudson (Lancashire County Council), Krista Patrick providers of data. I want to acknowledge all the support, that the (Greater Manchester Geological Unit) and Sue Bradburne NWRTAB has received to enable it to complete this task. John Geldard Chair, North West Regional Technical Advisory Body and Lancashire County Council 2 3rd Annual Monitoring Report – Working towards sustainable waste management in the North West August 2007 Executive summary This report is the third waste management monitoring report o The region is making excellent progress against its target (35% prepared by the NWRTAB. It provides the latest overview of the by 2020) for increasing recycling of commercial and industrial implementation of key actions and progress towards the objectives wastes. Around 47% of commercial and industrial wastes was and targets in the Regional Waste Strategy (RWS). recycled and 29% went to landfill. The North West is a region which takes sustainable waste o The region is making progress against its target (70% by 2020) management seriously. However, we have a long way to go before to recover the value from commercial and industrial wastes, we can say the North West has met the Government’s goal of ‘One which includes recycling. In 2006, the region recovered energy Planet Living’ as set out in the Waste Strategy for England 2007 from around 23% of commercial and industrial waste. (WS2007). As such this report is a record of the region’s performance on working towards sustainable waste management in the North In 2005, 6.8 million tonnes of waste was sent to waste management West. facilities in the North West. Around 78% of the total inputs to these facilities was household, commercial & industrial waste, 13% inert The report compares regional and national waste targets. Most construction & demolition waste and 9% hazardous waste. In notably, the report finds that the regional strategy sets targets for addition, nearly 145,000 fly-tipping incidents were reported in the preventing and managing commercial and industrial waste, which are region during 2005/06 and over £8.7 million spent clearing up the missing from the national strategy. However, the regional strategy mess. Over 60% of these fly-tips are from households and left in does not have any targets for preventing and managing household black bin bags. residual waste nor for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from waste, which have been set at the national level. However, the region It is estimated that the total void space available (55 million m3) would is currently developing regional greenhouse gas emissions reduction provide for some eight years from the end of 2006. However, waste targets as part of the North West Climate Change Action Plan. reduction, increased recycling and composting could extend this period and kerbside collection address fly-tipping. Consequently, The headline figures in this report from monitoring the progress against the RWS targets are: North West Waste Disposal Authorities are at various stages of strategic planning or procurement for the development of new o The region has met and surpassed its target (2% by 2006) for treatment capacity for residual municipal waste in order to meet the reducing the growth in municipal waste for the last two years. required landfill diversion within their allowances under the Landfill The region has stabilised its growth rate over the last six years Allowance Trading Scheme. with an actual 4% reduction in household waste production from 2004/05 to 2005/06. In addition, the NWRA has commissioned a study to identify the pattern of waste management facilities and broad locations for sites of o The region met its target (25% by 2005) for recycling and national, regional and sub-regional significance. The study is due to composting household waste one year late. complete in October 2007. o The region falls significantly short of its target (40% by 2005) to In light of the revised national waste strategy, the NWRA is committed recover the value from municipal solid waste with the current to starting a review of the RWS based on the findings of this report value recovered at 27% from one facility. and the broad locations study before the end of 2007. The review of o The region is making progress against its target (0% by 2020) to the RWS will form part of a larger activity to develop a regional stop growth in commercial and industrial waste. Total sustainable consumption and production framework. This is in commercial and industrial waste production is in line with the keeping with Government’s UK Sustainable Development Strategy target with a reduction of 2.5% from 2003 to 2006. and Climate Change Programme. 3rd Annual Monitoring Report – Working towards sustainable waste management in the North West 3 August 2007 1 CHAPTER Introduction North West Regional Technical o reduce growth in commercial and industrial wastes by 0% by 2020; Advisory Body o recover the value from at least 70% of commercial and industrial wastes by 2020 (including recycling/ 1.1 The NWRTAB was established in 1999 as a consequence composting); and of the requirements of Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) 10. o recycle 35% of all commercial and industrial wastes by In 2001 it published a Waste Management Technical 1 2020. Report providing analysis of data on waste arisings and 1.7 The region’s progress against the RWS targets is included capacity demands for municipal, commercial and industrial under the municipal waste and commercial and industrial waste in the region. In 2004, the NWRTAB provided an waste sections in this report. In addition, a progress report update on regional waste management data in the form of 2 on the implementation of the RWS against 19 policy the first Waste Management Monitoring Report . The 3 statements is set out under Technical Appendix 2. NWRTAB published its second report in 2006. Between publication of the first and second reports, the NWRA published the Regional Waste Strategy (RWS)4. Government intervention Consequently, the second report monitored the implementation of key actions and progress towards the 1.8 The overall objective of Government policy on waste, set out 6 objectives and targets in the RWS.