Government's consultation on waste aggregates "is flawed", claims BAA

The government's launch last week of a consultation document on proposals to relieve waste aggregates from the aggregates levy is "fundamentally flawed", according to the British Aggregates Association (BAA).

Containing proposals to review the tax treatment of waste aggregates, BAA director Robert Durward has accused the document of trying to make a rigid distinction between "waste" aggregates and "secondary" aggregates.

Durward claims that although waste material has always been a problem,  the main issue is that secondary aggregates are now being denied much of their market.

Secondary materials from competing sectors that do not pay aggregates levy, such as china clay and slate, are increasingly being used as aggregate and in manufactured blocks

A recent survey of BAA members found that the destruction of the market for secondary aggregates was causing large, ugly new waste heaps to build up, potentially amounting to 15-20 million tonnes across the UK. The resulting problems are particularly acute for smaller quarry operators.

He added: "The government's approach is fundamentally flawed. When producing certain materials a quarry will unavoidably produce other materials of a less saleable nature, although they may all be geologically the same.

"If the quarry cannot sell these secondary materials - and the aggregates levy has made this impossible in many cases - they become waste, this is the root of the problem."