Lib Dems at Cambridgeshire County Council voted against the Council’s Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy at the October 2008 council meeting. They did so on the grounds that it is insufficiently ambitious and does not address the carbon reduction targets recently reaffirmed by the government and agreed with the European Union.

Lib Dem environment and transport spoke Alex Reid said that the Council has had an exemplary record of recycling and that it can be proud of where it is today. However he went on to say that going forward it should set itself tougher targets and address the fundamental sources of waste and not simply focus on recycling. Cllr Reid said: ‘the real challenge is to reduce waste to landfill at the same time as we reduce total waste. Simply targeting a % recycling figure is not enough and this is especially true when the county’s target figure for 2015 is no higher than the figure today. The Council is not focusing on the right targets and it’s being complacent about the ones which it has.’

Lib Dem Group Leader David Jenkins added: ‘ we need to be much more aggressive higher up the waste stream and reduce waste before we begin to move it around the county. We need to be addressing the amount of waste generated up front by reducing packaging and other unwanted materials. We also need to encourage people to maximise their own in-house recycling. It is silly for the Council to collect green waste which could be composted and used by local residents in their own gardens.’

‘I will be calling on the Cabinet to revisit this strategy and to make it more relevant to the challenges that the people of Cambridgeshire face.’