Anne McIntosh on landfill

Anne McIntosh, Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is interested in landfill, as evidenced by the following written answer:

"Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress he has made to meeting the target to complete the process of closing all landfills by 2009 that will not meet the Landfill Directive requirements. [231011]

Jane Kennedy: Implementation of the landfill directive has so far resulted in a reduction in the number of permitted landfill sites in England and Wales from around 2,600 to 560 sites that continue to operate.

Of those estimated—560 sites, 450 have been granted a landfill permit and thus meet the requirements of the landfill directive. The remaining 110 sites are either:

closing by July 2009 in accordance with a plan agreed with the Environment Agency (10);

subject to outstanding appeals against the refusal of a landfill permit application (25); or

still being considered following further investigation as to their fulfilment of the landfill directive requirements (75)."

That's a good question from Miss McIntosh. Disagreements about climate change will go on and on, but there's a lot more to the environment than just that. How we dispose of our waste - and how we reduce the amount we produce in the first place - is massively important. (Which is not to say it necessarily has no climate change implications.) Could it even be an area of consensus for ConservativeHome readers?!