ESA offers 100,000 to help towards waste strategy review

Environment Agency

The Environment Agency said it hoped the Waste Summit would prove to be the turning point in achieving sustainable waste management. And, it urged that waste reduction and recycling targets should apply to businesses, as well as local authorities, and companies should be required to report waste management performance in statutory annual reports and accounts.

ESA

The Environmental Services Association, which represents waste management companies, welcomed the study of the waste strategy which is to be carried out by the Performance & Innovation Unit Cabinet Office Study on
waste strategy. “Our industry wants to get the UK's waste and secondary resource management
further from low cost waste disposal and more towards resource management
actively contributing to the UK's resource efficiency. This will take
political leadership. Margaret Beckett showed leadership last month in her
keynote speech announcing the Waste Summit. She again showed it today in her
announcement of a PIU study on waste,” commented Dirk Hazell, ESA chief
executive.

“The industry attaches great importance to this initiative. It is of course
for the Government to direct the PIU study and we will help as best we can.
The Environmental Services Training & Education Trust is also today writing
to the Secretary of State to offer at least 100,000 to facilitate the work
of the PIU if this is felt to be helpful and appropriate.”

Friends of the Earth

Mike Childs, senior waste spokesman at Friends of the Earth, said: “One of the rays of hope is that Margaret Beckett was in the whole of the meeting. it wasn’t the traditional approach of wheeling in a minister and wheeling them out again. She was there, she was listening, and I think there was ground for optimism. There is no doubt that waste is a higher political strategy than it has been for a long time.”

Mr Childs said he felt that one reason for the Summit was because there is lots of pressure on the government included everything from abandoned cars through to incineration.

IWM

IWM president Dr Cathy O&#39B;rien said there had been an interesting meetings of minds at the Summit. “There was a very high level discussion of all the issues and I was very pleased to see Margaret Beckett there.
“I think the review of the waste strategy is the key thing the Institute will want to plug into in the short term near future, because that is obviously the way that government wants to address the issue in the short term. That study will then bring some long term changes to the economics and possibly the delivery mechanisms.
And, Dr O&#39B;rien confirmed that some participants had raised the need for more organisation for waste management in the UK, with the Institute advocating something along the lines of a national waste authority.