New LARAC chair outlines vision

Mr Bird was elected as the chair of LARAC in January 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story). He takes up the role from departing chair Joy Blizzard who held the position for five years.

The recycling strategy and commissioning manager for Newcastle-under-Lyme borough council in Staffordshire said he is keen to see the organisation continue its role as a key provider of advice and information for recycling officers, especially as budget cuts have lead to staffing reductions in the area.

Among the work LARAC is currently involved in is working with the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on the development of an information pack for councils over commingling and TEEP as well as advising members on the MRF Code of Practice and other legislative developments.

Mr Bird said: The importance of the organisation is to provide an advice service to our members and I think that is getting more and more important as cuts and financial issues with local authorities are felt, and as a lot of knowledgeable staff have disappeared. LARACs role to provide that advice that may no longer be available in those local authorities is very important.

Commenting on his appointment as chair of the organisation, and his priorities while in the post, Mr Bird said: I fully accept I have a hard act to follow with Joy but what I want to do is be able to take the organisation further forward so building on what has been achieved and making LARAC more visible and more well respected. It is and has been the organisation to go to and government departments do come to us and that needs to be certainly maintained and moved forward.

He added: We need to ensure LARAC is robust and can continue to be an organisation as local authorities grapple with ever increasing demands on their finances. We want to be there for them and we need to find ways of making sure that we are.

Government policy

Meanwhile, Mr Bird also commented that he felt that a lack of clarity from government on issues surrounding waste has created uncertainty for councils, and added that it is further complicated by having three government departments BIS, DCLG and Defra working on the subject.

It has been suggested in a report by a group of conservative MPs that waste should be moved under the remit of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on this Mr Bird said: I think that BIS handling waste is an interesting point of view and probably worthy of consideration. I think if we are true to the fact that we want to create a circular economy and recognise that the materials we are collecting are resources…then maybe BIS would be better suited to help the chain. It is really the business side of things that will drive this. We, as local authorities, are just a link in the chain so it does need everybody to really come together.

Mr Bird reasoned that investment from business is needed to drive the waste industry forward and BIS could help facilitate this: Business does need to drive it [growth] as they have the money and the solutions to making these things work. As local authorities we can certainly collect and provide materials but again it comes back to it being financially and environmentally viable. If by going with BIS it does facilitate markets opening up, and we do need proper closed loop manufacturing, then I think it is a good thing and worth looking at.