Parliamentary Committee Examines Use of Landfill

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee held a hearing on 10th January into how the UK is reducing its reliance on landfill, questioning Helen Ghosh, Permanent Secretary DEFRA, and Neil Thornton, Director, Environmental Quality and Waste at Defra.

MPs were keen to find out whether the officials believe the UK will meet its obligations under the Landfill Directive.  Mrs Ghosh said that the Department is increasingly confidence that these will be achieved but that there can be no complacency in pushing forward progress to increase the use of energy from waste and recycling over landfill. She welcomed progress under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme.

Parliamentarians also discussed the problems associated with gaining planning approval for the required new infrastructure and examined the various options for expanding the use of energy from waste technologies in managing more material.