Industry cannot adapt to landfill restrictions - NFU

NFU Cymru has described proposals by the Welsh Assembly Government to introduce restrictions on the landfilling of certain waste as a blunt tool, which does not allow the industry enough time to adapt.

The consultation which was published jointly by the Welsh Assembly Government and DEFRA invited views on the prospect of introducing landfill restrictions or bans on several waste streams including paper and card, food, textiles, metals, wood, electrical and garden waste.

In its response NFU Cymru opposed the calls made to bring in bans from 2015 and has pressed to keep the ban under review, asking the Welsh Assembly Government to reconsider it as we near 2020, so that the appropriate infrastructure has time to develop.

Bernard Llewellyn, Chairman of NFU Cymru’s Rural Affairs Board said, "We are not opposed in principle to the concept of the ban, however, we do see it as a blunt tool and feel that it is too early to consider complete restrictions on many of these waste streams proposed."

NFU Cymru outlined several key reasons as to why it objects a complete ban on the candidate waste streams in the immediate future, stressing that the delivery of existing mechanisms such as the increasing landfill tax, producer responsibility agreements and voluntary industry initiatives need more time to work to improve the results.

Lack of appropriate facilities and infrastructure for treating farm wastes in the event of a ban are also of particular concern to NFU Cymru, Mr Llewellyn said, "In the event of a landfill ban there will be a need for accessible and affordable facilities that can deal with a comprehensive range of farm wastes especially in the rural areas that farm businesses exist.

"The knock-on effect than a ban could have on levels of fly-tipping on farmland is also extremely worrying. The farming community already suffers from regular fly-tipping of mattresses and textile materials on farmland and farmers fear that this is just one example of waste stream that will increase as a result of the landfill ban.

"Whilst we fully support the Welsh Assembly Governments goal of minimising landfill by recycling more and recovering energy from residual waste, the actual costs of enforcing compliance of any ban is expensive and with Government Agencies under threat as they try to reduce deficit we fear that there will not be enough resources to support farming and rural businesses."