7.52 Waste and recycling are areas of high priority for Government investment whose characteristics mean that PFI investment could offer significant value for money gains. Specifically:
• waste reduction is a strongly outcome-orientated policy initiative, with scope for innovation as to how those goals will be achieved. For example, there is a statutory requirement to achieve a 33 per cent recycling target by 2015, driven by the landfill tax - set to more than double to £35 per tonne in the same period. This means that the public sector can clearly define outputs, and make use of private sector innovation and expertise to deliver them;
• this is a high turnover, low margin sector with the potential to harness large economies of scale. The waste sector therefore involves the procurement of very significant capital assets, potentially increasing the benefits of PFI and the risks of conventional procurement. Private sector estimates of the investment required to deliver on policy goals run to £8 billion by 2008-10.