Project Gwyrdd wants Councils to sign contracts for Guaranteed Minimum Payments for 25 years, based on supplying municipal waste whatever success in reducing volumes and recycling rates.
Calling them Guaranteed Minimum Annual Tonnages last November, P. Gwyrdd recognised this looked like guaranteeing production of waste to feed their incinerator, so changed the name to guaranteed Payments.
Same difference! Each Council is to pay based on guesses at future waste volumes and aiming for only 65% recycling by 2025. Both should be challenged.
P Gwyrdd planned in 2007/8 for increasing waste volumes, yet the statistics show continuing decrease since 2005, from 1.9 to 1.7 million tonnes in 2009/10 (diagram below). WAG set a target for slower decreases by 1.2% pa, then the total dropped faster last year because of the recession. Yet P. Gwyrdd clings to arguments for increasing waste to feed its incinerator.
Second, the Vale Council policy is to maximise recycling and composting, to conform to the Welsh Strategy. The rate has risen from 30% to 50% in a few years. Our leading Councillors talk of boosting recycling and foodwaste collections. They've contracted to Biffa who claim levels of 70% in exemplar Councils. Levels of 80-90% are said to be practicable.
So how can Council leaders contract to only 65% recycling and only by 2025?
FoE asks - will Plaid, the Independents and the Labour groups reject this figure? Will they reject any P. Gwyrdd contract that binds the VoG to residual waste levels based on the 65% and growing waste volumes?
