The policy, put forward as a motion by Bath and North East Somerset councillor Roger Symonds, included targets of 60% recycling by 2010, 75% by 2015 and zero waste by 2020. The UK currently recycles about 13%, and has a government target to reach 25% by 2015.
The Liberal Democrats now intend to campaign for more doorstep recycling, a ban on the landfilling of organic waste that has not been treated to reduce potential methane emissions, a ban on the thermal treatment of waste and limiting waste disposal contracts to ten years.
Introducing the motion, Cllr Symonds said: “Zero waste is a visionary policy. It views waste as a resource – we've got into a habit of forgetting that. But a technical society like ours should be able to do it. Please don’t get hung up on the “zero” – it is a long-term goal. Zero waste adds “redesign” as a fourth “R” at the top of the chain – it should be: redesign, reduce, re-use, recycle.”
Although the zero waste motion was criticised by some delegates for being “illiberal” because of its centralist tendencies and extra targets for councils, the policy was overwhelmingly approved by the conference.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com following the vote, Liberal Democrat shadow environment minister Norman Baker MP said that the zero waste policy showed the party at the “cutting edge” of political thinking in the UK.
He said: “While I was out campaigning in the Brent East bi-election, there was a tremendous amount of public support for this – recycling is a big issue. The government's deliverance of its own Waste Strategy has been completely hopeless. But we will now be campaigning on zero waste, it will form part of our next general election manifesto.”
Realistic
At a Conference Fringe event, consultant David Davies warned that zero waste without incineration was not a realistic policy, saying that the councils with high recycling rates in the UK, including Lichfield and Daventry are rurally-based, while most of the country's population is urban. No urban area in the world was able to achieve a recycling rate higher than 45% for household waste, he said.
Mr Davies explained: “There are fundamental differences between what is achievable in urban and metropolitan areas and what can be achieved in rural areas, and let's not forget that the overwhelming majority of us live in urban areas and conurbations. This distinction is often glossed over and forgotten.”
Mr Davies went on to say that in Austria, a country with a 50% recycling and composting rate, the government there was looking to build a third incinerator, and that their high recycling rates were driven by waste management costs three to four times those seen in the UK.
But Liberal Democrat councillors present at the event, including Roger Symonds, said that the party could not base its policy on what was happening now, it needed to look to the future.
Several Liberal-dominated councils have already taken up the zero waste pledge, including Bath and North East Somerset as well as others like Milton Keynes. But the party's embracing of the policy does not necessarily mean other Liberal-controlled councils signing up, according to Sue Doughty, the anti-incineration MP for Guildford.
She told letsrecycle.com: “You can never bind councils to policy, but you can give them some guidance. This new policy opens up the arguments, and means if councils have got an incinerator up for planning, they've got all the information to hand.”
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