New waste and recycling minister Jane Kennedy has announced the first six 'Zero Waste Places', areas which will be expected to demonstrate best practice in waste management across England.

The initiative was a commitment within the Waste Strategy 2007, and the six selected 'Places' range from just a few residential streets to the entire West Midlands region.

The six 'Zero Waste Places' were announced by new waste and recycling minister Jane Kennedy

Announcing the selections, Ms Kennedy said: "Across England, we are seeing communities come together with innovative ideas and a shared determination to tackle waste locally.

"These six zero waste places will test what can be done to make it easier for people and businesses to change the way they view and deal with waste," she added.

The selection of six schemes is one more than the five originally expected when the application process was undertaken earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Under the initiative, which is being managed for Defra by the BREW Centre for Local Authorities, the selected areas will act as demonstrators for schemes that boost waste prevention in schools, household and businesses and also support councils in their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of waste.

Details of the six 'Zero Waste Places' are as follows:

The London Borough of Brent, which will develop 20 Green Zones across the borough by September 2009, involving establishing Green Teams of residents and developing a GIS-based map of the borough showing green ‘threads' growing through the borough to track the progress of the initiative.

Shenley Church End in Milton Keynes will see the area of nearly 1500 homes, two schools and a number of high street businesses aim to cut waste and litter right across the area.

Kings Lynn in Norfolk will achieve zero waste as far as possible within the historic area of the Tuesday Market, which is home to businesses and homes, as well being a tourist hotspot and the focus of many civic events.

The London Borough of Lewisham will run an Eco Street initiative, where around 100 properties will be targeted through a range of measures including specialist advice and support to cut waste.

Peterborough will run a Zero Waste City Centre initiative, which will focus on Cathedral Square and the three streets leading from it (Bridge Street, Cowgate and Long Causeway), including the Queensgate Shopping Centre, encompassing more than 200 retailers and offices, including the Town Hall and council offices.

The West Midlands will create a Zero Waste Region, focussing on businesses and organisation that produce a large quantity of waste, identifying region-wide waste infrastructure needs, improving co-operation and cutting business waste right across the region.

BREW centre manager, Susan Kent, explained that the initiative meant "these places will go as far as possible to reduce, reuse and recycle all types of waste whether it's from a home, a school or business.

"We are really looking forward to working with the 6 places, and seeing how their approaches can change our behaviour towards waste," she added.