The Assembly, which represents local authorities, businesses and community groups in the North East of England, commissioned consultancy firm Environmental Resources Management to produce the document 'Towards a Waste Strategy for the North East'. This examines the area's waste management priorities for the period to 2016.
The North East has traditionally relied on landfill to dispose of most of its waste – the recycling rate in 1990/2000 was just 6%. But Assembly chair Tony Flynn said the waste strategy aimed to change this. “The document places a much stronger emphasis on waste minimisation and recycling and represents an ambitious change to the way we handle waste in the region,” he said.
“The main purpose of this consultation is to seek views and to try and reach as much agreement as possible about the vision and strategy for the future and the action needed to achieve them.”
The Assembly will not consider the report until stakeholders' comments are received. The closing date for responses is March 14, 2003 and a spokeswoman said the Assembly hoped to start work on a final waste strategy document by the end of 2003 at the latest.
In 1999-2000, the North East produced 13.5 million tonnes of waste, 1.5 million tonnes of which were municipal waste.
Click here to view the consultation document in full.
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