(2) what the cost per tonne was for reductions made by the business resource efficiency and waste programme in (a) waste to landfill, (b) hazardous waste and (c) water; and how much carbon dioxide has been saved under the programme since its inception.
Delivery bodies conducting programmes under the wider business resource efficiency and waste programme (BREW) report on a number of environmental and business-based 'metrics' covering:
Environmental:
i) reduction of greenhouse gas or equivalents
ii) virgin raw materials saved
iii) reduced hazardous waste arisings
iv) decreased water usage
v) waste diverted from landfill
Business:
vi) cost savings
vii) new business sales
The metrics system was developed during the first year of the programme and is still being worked on to ensure a greater level of consistency in the methodologies used by different delivery bodies. As the methodology has not yet been perfected, the year one (2005-06) results are being viewed with caution and should only be used to give an indication of the savings being made. There are areas of the programme where the work cannot be measured against the metrics. For example, the Environment Agency work to reduce flytipping, if successful, could increase the amount of waste sent to landfill.
The aggregated results for 2005-06, for the delivery bodies which reported in-year savings against some or all of the metrics, are shown in the following table. It is important to note that there will also be savings from these interventions in future years not counted here:
Metric In-year result Cost per unit reduction for these in-year results (£) Increased sales £14.6 million 1.27 Cost savings to business £88 million 0.21 Virgin raw material savings 682,000 tonnes 27.24 Carbon savings 87,300 tonnes of carbon1 212.77 Water savings 5,630,000 cubic metres 3.30 Waste diverted from landfill 675,000 tonnes 27.52 Hazardous waste savings 120,000 tonnes 154.79 1 For consistency, the delivery bodies that have reported in carbon dioxide have had their figures converted to carbon. Their carbon dioxide figures were multiplied by 12/44.
Work is currently underway to assess the impact of programme spending in 2006-07.
DEFRA's business resource efficiency and waste (BREW) programme is returning £284 million raised from the landfill tax escalator back to businesses between 2005 and 2008 to improve their resource efficiency and to minimise the levels of waste that are unnecessarily sent to landfill.
Funds are awarded to a number of regional and national BREW delivery bodies. A total of £33 million was allocated in 2005-06 and £100.7 million was allocated in the 2006-07 financial year for spending on business resource efficiency activities in England.