The ESA, which represents the UK's waste management companies, said that of the report's 216 paragraphs, only one paragraph is specifically devoted to the waste management industry which accounts for 0.5% of GDP.
ESA chief executive Dirk Hazell noted: “this betrays a dismissive attitude to those who do rather than to those who talk“.
Mr Hazell said: “It is difficult to relate the contents of this Report to its title,
Delivering sustainable waste management. This Select Committee has added
value in the past and commanded our respect through the quality of its
findings, but not on this occasion. As our own long-suppressed evidence
suggests, ESA is in some respects more radical than either the government or
this committee in addressing the need for greater resource efficiency.”
And, Mr Hazell said that he shared “the government's disappointment over this report as regards, to give just one example, the committee's failure to identify only
targets rather than practical delivery mechanisms for waste minimisation.”
Mr Hazell added: “Since Maastricht, the European Union has been a more important driver than Parliament towards sustainability through regulation. It is a fact that Parliament has lost legal power. This committee has squandered an
opportunity to exercise moral authority through intellectual leadership.
Ghosts of our long suppressed evidence flit discreetly hither and thither
across the report but the committee has produced from the many resources on
which they drew not a cogent report which adds value but a shop-front for
hobby-horses.”
Register for free to comment