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Landfill Tax is being increase yet again.
This time by 20% from 1st April 2005. In a bid to tackle Britain’s
growing levels of waste. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Brown
told the Commons:-
“We have a commitment to protect the environment for our
children and future generations.”
For the previous year on 1st April,
2004 Landfill Tax was increased by 7%.
The Government hopes that these measures will encourage everyone
to recycle more waste and thus minimise the waste going to Landfill.
The Government announced on 1st November 2004 that in March 2005
new legislation know as “Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations
2005” will be implemented to bring the UK in line with the
rest of Europe. Briefly it will mean:
Drivers and crews must not exceed 48 hours work in any week over
a 17week period.
Driving, loading, unloading and all maintenance is included in
the time allowed to work.
Rest breaks of 30 minutes must be taken over a 6 – 9 hour
period (45 minutes for hours worked over 9 hours).
Drivers must have 11 hours consecutive rest in any 24 hour period.
All companies operating vehicles will be greatly affected and
there is likely to be a shortage of HGV drivers due to increased
demand for companies to recruit more drivers and staff.
Fortress will strive to maintain its high levels of service which
will include further driver recruitment and training and the purchase
of new vehicles. Increased costs are inevitable for all concerned
both for the aforementioned and further administration and management
costs.
Major additions to waste legislation that have recently been implemented
affecting UK waste disposal are:
Landfill Regulations – End of Co-disposal July 2004
Waste Electrical & Electrical Equipment
Directive (WEEE) – UK Law August 2004
Restrictions of Hazardous Substances
Directive (RoHS) – UK Law August 2004
The current national controls on waste originate from The Control
of Pollution Act 1974 but with the introduction of the Environmental
Protection Act 1990, these were updated and massively tightened.
New legislation and amendments to existing legislation are introduced
relatively frequently and on 16th July, 2004 a further stage of
Landfill Directive was implemented and co-disposal of wastes ended.
This meant that hazardous and non-hazardous wastes could no longer
go to the same Landfill.
The European Waste Catalogue (EWC) shows an extensive list of
waste types and covers over 800 different types of waste from
all sectors of industry. Items previously not considered hazardous,
but which are now on the list include items such as:
Fluorescent tubes (although in England & Wales waste producers
can put up to 2 fluorescent tubes in a general waste container)
• Oil filters and oily rags
• Paints, inks and resins
• Electrical equipment
• Detergents
• Contaminating packaging residues
• Wood containing dangerous substances
The new Hazardous Waste Regulations which will replace the Special
Waste Regulations in July 2005 will lead to increased costs for
waste collections as disposal costs rise and Landfill sites licenced
to take hazardous waste become fewer due to the onerous restrictions
placed upon them. Non-hazardous waste disposal prices are rising
above the general rate of inflation, as landfill operators now
have to increase scrutiny and recover increased costs.
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