Local Authority Waste Disposal Company: Difference between revisions

[[Category:Organisations]]

In the mid 1990s, [[Waste Disposal Authorities]] were required by law to divest their assets and their regulatory responsibilities with regard to the [[Disposal]] and [[Treatment]] of waste which were functions previously operated in-house, notably [[Landfill]] sites, [[Composting]] sites and [[Household Waste Recycling Centre]]s (HWRCs). The regulatory responsibilities were transferred to the [[Environment Agency]] as part of its creation, and the assets were either sold to privately owned waste management companies, or transferred to a new '''Local Authority Waste Disposal Company''' or '''LAWDC'''.

The creation of a LAWDC required the [[Waste Disposal Authority]] to be at arms-length, with the shares able to be owned wholly by the Authority but with less than 20% representation at the LAWDC's board level. The transfer of the assets (i.e. sites) to the LAWDC also entailed the transfer of staff and in most cases some form of [[Disposal]] and/or [[Treatment]] contract.

As time passed, many of the LAWDCs were sold to privately owned waste management companies, especially through the late 1990s. There are now only a limited number of LAWDCs that remain, although the underpinning legislation requiring their creation has been repealed.

The new arrangements for a [[Waste Disposal Authority]] and/or [[Waste Collection Authority]] that is seeking to create an arms-length company for the delivery of waste services (primarily for waste collection services but increasingly for the delivery of HWRC contracts for example) are through a [[Local Authority Trading Company]].