Resource efficiency vital, says ESA manifesto

A European policy manifesto launched in Brussels by the Environmental Services Association (ESA) has won immediate support for its messages on the need for resource efficiency.

The document was unveiled by the ESA at a roundtable event in Brussels yesterday (June 28).

In it, the ESA, which represents much of the UKs waste management industry, highlights the need to improve product design, by requiring products in key sectors of the economy to be made more durable, repairable, re-usable, and/or recyclable, based on the principle of producer responsibility.

And, in the manifesto the ESA said it would like to see more such products on the market and believes the European Commission should bring manufacturers and the waste industry together to help achieve this.

Speaking at the launch, ESAs immediate past chairman, Ian Goodfellow, said: The waste and resource management industry makes an important contribution to resource efficiency, green growth, and to employment, which is not always fully recognised.

We would like to see more work being done on improving product design, so that those harder to recycle and disassemble composite-products and materials do not end up in landfill. Whilst this will be challenging, it can also create market opportunities for companies that are enterprising enough to design their products to take account of what will happen to them after they have been used and discarded.

Commission

His comments on the need for resource efficiency were backed by William Neal from the Cabinet of European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik as well by representatives from other associations present.

Mr Neal pointed to how Europe had been a rich world with growth built on the decline of commodity prices.

He said resource efficiency was inevitable in the future with the rise in prices of commodities since 2000. I am not talking about a little bubble but a hockey stick-like straight line increase, he said.

And, he commented that the rest of the world would need more resources, with the global population increasing and an estimated 3 billion more people with middle class consumption by 2030.

He said: For Europe this is all very significant and is very important as we are dependent on imports – we import more than six times than we export.

Hierarchy

The ESA, in its manifesto, calls for efforts to move waste up the waste hierarchy. Mr Neal acknowledged these views and said that the thematic strategy on waste should help. And, with the aid of a Eurostat chart he highlighted countries in Europe which are landfilling less than 5% as a cause of optimism.

Commenting on incineration, he said this was a valid choice in some circumstances but referring to a coloured chart, he added: We would like to see the yellow bits and the white bits, recycling and composting, increasing more.

This lead to him emphasising how the 2020 Roadmap, with full implementation, will only allow energy recovery of materials which cant be recycled. However, he appeared to suggest that this is not yet finalised ahead of new targets being considered for 2014 and that plastics remains unconfirmed as an energy-from-waste material. But, he made it clear that a key aspect of EU policy is the separate collection of waste materials for recycling.

He reminded the audience that the Commission is to issue a communication next year on food waste which is likely to consider food waste that can be avoided and food waste which cant be avoided.

Economy

Also addressing the meeting, Dutch Green MEP Bas Eickhout, shadow rapporteur for the Resource Efficient Europe Report 201, explained that the Greens were now generally willing to work with industry where there was common cause. He warned that Europe will become a continent where there will be less economic growth that in South America, China and Africa.

It is now clear that there are sectors who will profit from the transition to the circular economy. I would urge you to be more vocal very much your manifesto. This going to be a fight between industries who still want to be fossil-based and the new industries.
Andy Lebrecht, a former top Defra official, who now represents the UK government at the Commission as Deputy Permanent Representative, said it was clear that access to resources will be an increasingly important factor in determining economic growth. We have to build in resource efficiency.

He continued: I am very glad to see an organisation like the ESA taking a lead in Europe.
And, he said that Defra has established that there are 27 billion Euros worth of savings for UK businesses from straightforward resource efficiency.

Mr Lebrecht also said that he agreed with the priorities that ESA had identified. He highlighted work in the UK to help encourage resource use such as the development of standards which help remove uncertainty and city market failures.

The Manifesto itself has four main points:

1. Ensure full implementation of all EU waste legislation, in particular the revised Waste Framework Directive and the statutory waste hierarchy, to prevent waste and to promote recycling and energy recovery.
2. Promote better enforcement of all EU waste legislation, to ensure the environment and human health are protected.
3. Ensure fair competition between the private and public sectors in EU rules on public procurement.
4. Implement the European Commissions Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe. Policy interventions must focus on the whole life cycle of products and materials, not just on what happens when items are discarded.