Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett committed the Government to taking forward recommendations set out in a Cabinet Office Strategy Unit report aimed at cutting waste right across England.

The Strategy Unit released their report 'Waste not, Want not' in November last year. It looked at how England can tackle its growing waste problem and how to meet EU Landfill Directive targets, which require big cuts in the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill.

Beckett said: 'Waste in the UK continues to rise at 3% per year - faster than GDP and faster than in most other nations. The Strategy Unit has made a wide range of recommendations to address our mounting waste problem. They have made it clear that if we carry on as we are the waste mountain will double by 2020, adding £1.6 billion per year to waste disposal costs. This equates to £32 for every man, woman and child in England. Much of what ends up in our rubbish bins represents a resource that could have been used productively. 'But it's not just people's pockets that will be hit if nothing is done. Waste doesn't end at the garden gate when we put it in our rubbish bins - it ends up in the environment in which we live, work and play. Waste sent to landfills generates landfill gas, which contributes to global warming, and the more waste we generate the more space we have to devote to managing it.

Let us draw a line in the sand today and change our attitude to the rubbish we generate. Lets think first about how we can reduce the amount we generate, and reuse, recycle and compost as much as we can.'

Government has already acted in the following areas:

• Landfill Tax will be increased by £3 per tonne in 2005/06 and by at least £3 per tonne in the years thereafter, on the way to a medium to long term rate of £35 per tonne. This will be the foundation for the economic framework the Strategy Unit recommended;
• The Landfill Tax Credit Scheme has been reformed and a proportion of the funding - £84/92/92m - will be re-directed to a new Sustainable Waste Management Programme in England in 2004/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06;
• A new Sustainable Waste Management Programme managed by DEFRA will concentrate on improving waste minimisation, recycling and composting, and researching new technologies for dealing with those wastes which are not readily reduced, reused or recycled.
• A new Delivery Team and Steering Group is being established in DEFRA to drive forward implementation of the Government's response to the Strategy Unit report and new programmes of work in DEFRA and WRAP;
• Local authority funding of £90m each year for 2004/05 and 2005/06 has been provided for the Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund or its successor Performance Reward Fund.

However, as the Strategy Unit point out, success in managing our waste requires everyone - government, industry and households - to take greater responsibility for waste. The unit recommended further partnership with industry to increase producer responsibility and decrease waste production, increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste passed on to households.