The calls come after North Tyneside Council was forced to buy 70,000 tonnes of “landfill allowances” from Westminster Council to avoid missing this year’s target for reducing buried waste.
Under strict Government targets local authorities are required to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by 75 per cent by 2010.
However, the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme allows authorities which are likely to miss the target to ‘buy’ landfill allowances from other authorities which are doing well.
And North Tyneside Council took this opportunity to buy 70,000 tonnes of allowances for £1.3million after realising it was likely to bury 74,000 tonnes of waste this year - missing its 59,000 target.
But it has also emerged a Sita UK energy to waste facility in Teesside has reduced the amount of waste it takes in from North Tyneside from 23,342 tonnes in 2001/02 to just 7,036 tonnes in 2004/05.
This is a drop of over 16,000 tonnes and campaigners opposed to an expansion of Sita UK’s landfill in Seghill want to know why.
Alan Fidler, a member of the No to Landfill Campaign, said: “The council could face fines of £10.5million for failing to meet the Government targets, so they don’t really have any choice but to buy these allowances.
“What’s interesting is the way the council is presenting this as a success and saying that buying allowances worth £1.3million is good planning. But it isn’t. It’s simply a smaller fine.
“Sita UK have told the council that the amount of waste being burned at its Teesside plant is likely to be reduced even further over the next few years, which will inevitably lead to an increase in the amount of waste going to landfills such as Seghill.
“If there was a problem with the machinery or other technical problems at the plant then it would be understandable.
“But the real issue is that North Tyneside is facing a shortfall in its target of 15,000 tonnes while Sita UK has reduced the amount of waste it burns by around 16,000.
“And because of this the rate payers have to pay £1.3million to buy landfill allowances from other authorities. Just what is going on?
“There needs to be serious questions answered about the contract between Sita UK and North Tyneside Council.
“Why are they being allowed to reduce the amount of waste being burned and increase the amount of waste being buried?
“North Tyneside is being pushed to one side so Sita can use its facilities for other contracts.”
A spokesperson for Sita UK said: “Despite everyone’s efforts to recycle more and divert waste away from landfill there is still a need to provide the landfill facility for the future.
“If the site at Seghill is not extended we may have to look at disposal options outside the county.