[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Waste]
Food waste should have 'mandatory collection', say MPs
> Call for separate food waste collection and composting at home
> Reduction of landfill also targets public buildings and industry
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 00.05 GMT Article history
The government should bring in "mandatory collection" of food waste from homes and a ban on leftovers going to landfill to help reduce the amount of rubbish dumped in England, according to a report by MPs which is released today.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee said the government should set targets for separate collection of food waste for composting or producing energy, while councils should support households to compost at home.
And schools, hospitals and groups of restaurants – including those in parliament – should be encouraged to take part in local composting schemes.
The committee said it supported a ban on certain types of rubbish, such as food waste, going to landfill.
The report from the committee urged the government, which is planning to consult next month on a landfill ban being introduced by 2020, to bring forward a "more ambitious timescale" to stop certain rubbish going into the ground by 2015. Yesterday, mayor of London Boris Johnson outlined plans to cut the amount of rubbish going to landfill sites to zero within 15 years.
The committee also said retailers should help reduce the amount of clothes that end up in landfill under the so-called "Primark effect" – with people throwing away cheap clothing.
The committee's chairman, Michael Jack, said: "We take the view, throughout the whole report, that waste is actually a resource.
"Food waste has got two key opportunities to be used – either in energy from waste and the other is to home compost.
"We should stop throwing it away into landfill when we have these two alternatives."
But with less than 10% of England's total waste mountain – which stands at some 330m tonnes a year – coming from homes, the committee also demanded more action to cut rubbish from retailers and industry, construction, demolition and mining activities.
For example, retailers with a turnover of more than £50m should be required to publish details of their recycling levels and the steps they are taking to cut their waste.
And food retailers and manufacturers should be required to publish annual figures for the amount of food waste they produce.
In addition, "benchmarks" are needed for industrial and commercial waste, similar to targets which have been set for domestic rubbish, to make it clear if companies are doing their bit to cut waste and boost recycling.
The Efra committee, which was reporting on its investigation into the environment department's (Defra) waste strategy for England 2007, praised householders for boosting average recycling levels to almost 37%.
But it said the government should set tougher targets for the future – to see recycling raised to 50% of household waste by 2015 and 60% by 2020.
[Business > BAA]
BAA plans for third Heathrow runway delayed — but is it too late for Sipson?
Airports group will not press ahead with application until after the general election
Peter Walker and Dan Milmo
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 January 2010 14.35 GMT Article history
BAA will not take the next step towards building a third runway at Heathrow until after the general election, it has said.
BAA secured government approval a year ago for its controversial plans to expand Britain's largest airport resulting in renewed protests from green groups and local residents. For the last seven years, a loose coalition of Sipson villagers, more seasoned environmental campaigners and celebrities have been battling BAA's plans to expand northwards. The company says Heathrow – and Britain – are greatly hampered by a main airport with only two runways – Charles de Gaulle in Paris has four, while Amsterdam's Schiphol has six.
But now, BAA has confirmed it will not launch a public consultation on a planning application until after a general election. With expansion strongly opposed by the Conservatives, who are ahead in the polls, any planning proposal could be quashed by a Tory administration.
The airports operator told the Guardian in a statement that it was still working on its application. However, it admitted that the process will be interrupted by the election: "We expect to be in a position to consult with local residents and all other interested parties in the second half of 2010." BAA denied that efforts had ceased altogether, saying the delay was caused only by discussions with the government's new infrastructure planning commission (IPC), set up last year. "The timing of any planning application and its component parts are not influenced by anything other than the requirements of the IPC and the volume of work to put together a compelling application," a spokesman said.
But with only Labour committed to the runway, the statement would nonetheless appear to mean that 700 homes in Sipson – the village that would have been flattened to build the runway – along with its handful of pubs, restaurants and other businesses, may be saved.
It would seem a moment of celebration for the No Third Runway Action Group, but members remain cautious.
Firstly, they say, even if the Conservatives win power they could change their mind in the face of relentless lobbying from BAA and British Airways. The latter's chief executive, Willie Walsh, called the runway decision the party's "biggest mistake ever".
Equally pertinent, they stress, is that the fabric of the village is, slowly but surely, collapsing around them.
"It's like a slow death for Sipson," said Jim Doyle, 47, who has raised a family in what remains a clearly defined village nestled in acres of green belt fields, despite sitting only a few hundred metres from Heathrow's northern perimeter and not much further south of the M4.
"I can't remember the last time a family bought here. To do what they've done to a community, with no timescale, no schedule, is an absolute disgrace."
Sitting in the 400-year-old William IV pub, like the rest of Sipson affected surprisingly little by aircraft noise thanks to the orientation of runways, Doyle describes how the threat hanging over the village means the only home buyers are speculative landlords who install short-term tenants, many from eastern Europe, with no real stake in the community's future.
"It's a very different place from how it used to be," he said.
BAA has already offered to buy up hundreds of homes in Sipson and an estimated 75 householders have agreed. Such an exodus, believes Sean Walters, the pub's landlord, would mean the end: "No one wants to be next door to an empty house, so they'll move on as well. That's how BAA will get the runway anyway – who'll want to live in a ghost village?"
Others are hopeful they can extract a long-term commitment from the Conservatives. David Cameron has not only backed their cause but sponsors an apple tree on land in Sipson bought by protesters and planted as an orchard. "If Cameron reneges on his promise, it would be so bad I won't ever vote again in this country in my life," said Linda McCutcheon, 64, who has lived in Sipson for more than forty years. "He said it, so he needs to take action. We'll work from there to get a definite no." Any minister
planning to send the bulldozers to Sipson will be aware that within minutes of their arrival, several sexagenarians would be lying down in their path. Many locals have promised direct action and are supported by younger, more experienced green campaigners through an innovative "adopt a resident" scheme.
The seemingly unlikely alliance began in August 2007 when the annual Climate Camp protest based itself around Sipson. "When they came we told them, 'Oh, you'll forget about us, you'll go on to something else.' But they said they wouldn't and they've kept to their word," McCutcheon said.
Her optimism is tinged by an ever-present sadness at the thought of what is at stake: "My children were born in the village, at the cottage hospital, which has now gone. They were christened in the local church and went to school here. It's an entire life, and it would all be under concrete. It's a terrible thought."
[Environment > Waste]
Food waste should have 'mandatory collection', say MPs
> Call for separate food waste collection and composting at home
> Reduction of landfill also targets public buildings and industry
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 00.05 GMT Article history
The government should bring in "mandatory collection" of food waste from homes and a ban on leftovers going to landfill to help reduce the amount of rubbish dumped in England, according to a report by MPs which is released today.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee said the government should set targets for separate collection of food waste for composting or producing energy, while councils should support households to compost at home.
And schools, hospitals and groups of restaurants – including those in parliament – should be encouraged to take part in local composting schemes.
The committee said it supported a ban on certain types of rubbish, such as food waste, going to landfill.
The report from the committee urged the government, which is planning to consult next month on a landfill ban being introduced by 2020, to bring forward a "more ambitious timescale" to stop certain rubbish going into the ground by 2015. Yesterday, mayor of London Boris Johnson outlined plans to cut the amount of rubbish going to landfill sites to zero within 15 years.
The committee also said retailers should help reduce the amount of clothes that end up in landfill under the so-called "Primark effect" – with people throwing away cheap clothing.
The committee's chairman, Michael Jack, said: "We take the view, throughout the whole report, that waste is actually a resource.
"Food waste has got two key opportunities to be used – either in energy from waste and the other is to home compost.
"We should stop throwing it away into landfill when we have these two alternatives."
But with less than 10% of England's total waste mountain – which stands at some 330m tonnes a year – coming from homes, the committee also demanded more action to cut rubbish from retailers and industry, construction, demolition and mining activities.
For example, retailers with a turnover of more than £50m should be required to publish details of their recycling levels and the steps they are taking to cut their waste.
And food retailers and manufacturers should be required to publish annual figures for the amount of food waste they produce.
In addition, "benchmarks" are needed for industrial and commercial waste, similar to targets which have been set for domestic rubbish, to make it clear if companies are doing their bit to cut waste and boost recycling.
The Efra committee, which was reporting on its investigation into the environment department's (Defra) waste strategy for England 2007, praised householders for boosting average recycling levels to almost 37%.
But it said the government should set tougher targets for the future – to see recycling raised to 50% of household waste by 2015 and 60% by 2020.
[Business > BAA]
BAA plans for third Heathrow runway delayed — but is it too late for Sipson?
Airports group will not press ahead with application until after the general election
Peter Walker and Dan Milmo
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 January 2010 14.35 GMT Article history
BAA will not take the next step towards building a third runway at Heathrow until after the general election, it has said.
BAA secured government approval a year ago for its controversial plans to expand Britain's largest airport resulting in renewed protests from green groups and local residents. For the last seven years, a loose coalition of Sipson villagers, more seasoned environmental campaigners and celebrities have been battling BAA's plans to expand northwards. The company says Heathrow – and Britain – are greatly hampered by a main airport with only two runways – Charles de Gaulle in Paris has four, while Amsterdam's Schiphol has six.
But now, BAA has confirmed it will not launch a public consultation on a planning application until after a general election. With expansion strongly opposed by the Conservatives, who are ahead in the polls, any planning proposal could be quashed by a Tory administration.
The airports operator told the Guardian in a statement that it was still working on its application. However, it admitted that the process will be interrupted by the election: "We expect to be in a position to consult with local residents and all other interested parties in the second half of 2010." BAA denied that efforts had ceased altogether, saying the delay was caused only by discussions with the government's new infrastructure planning commission (IPC), set up last year. "The timing of any planning application and its component parts are not influenced by anything other than the requirements of the IPC and the volume of work to put together a compelling application," a spokesman said.
But with only Labour committed to the runway, the statement would nonetheless appear to mean that 700 homes in Sipson – the village that would have been flattened to build the runway – along with its handful of pubs, restaurants and other businesses, may be saved.
It would seem a moment of celebration for the No Third Runway Action Group, but members remain cautious.
Firstly, they say, even if the Conservatives win power they could change their mind in the face of relentless lobbying from BAA and British Airways. The latter's chief executive, Willie Walsh, called the runway decision the party's "biggest mistake ever".
Equally pertinent, they stress, is that the fabric of the village is, slowly but surely, collapsing around them.
"It's like a slow death for Sipson," said Jim Doyle, 47, who has raised a family in what remains a clearly defined village nestled in acres of green belt fields, despite sitting only a few hundred metres from Heathrow's northern perimeter and not much further south of the M4.
"I can't remember the last time a family bought here. To do what they've done to a community, with no timescale, no schedule, is an absolute disgrace."
Sitting in the 400-year-old William IV pub, like the rest of Sipson affected surprisingly little by aircraft noise thanks to the orientation of runways, Doyle describes how the threat hanging over the village means the only home buyers are speculative landlords who install short-term tenants, many from eastern Europe, with no real stake in the community's future.
"It's a very different place from how it used to be," he said.
BAA has already offered to buy up hundreds of homes in Sipson and an estimated 75 householders have agreed. Such an exodus, believes Sean Walters, the pub's landlord, would mean the end: "No one wants to be next door to an empty house, so they'll move on as well. That's how BAA will get the runway anyway – who'll want to live in a ghost village?"
Others are hopeful they can extract a long-term commitment from the Conservatives. David Cameron has not only backed their cause but sponsors an apple tree on land in Sipson bought by protesters and planted as an orchard. "If Cameron reneges on his promise, it would be so bad I won't ever vote again in this country in my life," said Linda McCutcheon, 64, who has lived in Sipson for more than forty years. "He said it, so he needs to take action. We'll work from there to get a definite no." Any minister
planning to send the bulldozers to Sipson will be aware that within minutes of their arrival, several sexagenarians would be lying down in their path. Many locals have promised direct action and are supported by younger, more experienced green campaigners through an innovative "adopt a resident" scheme.
The seemingly unlikely alliance began in August 2007 when the annual Climate Camp protest based itself around Sipson. "When they came we told them, 'Oh, you'll forget about us, you'll go on to something else.' But they said they wouldn't and they've kept to their word," McCutcheon said.
Her optimism is tinged by an ever-present sadness at the thought of what is at stake: "My children were born in the village, at the cottage hospital, which has now gone. They were christened in the local church and went to school here. It's an entire life, and it would all be under concrete. It's a terrible thought."
※コメント投稿者のブログIDはブログ作成者のみに通知されます