The governments Waste Review is a huge missed opportunity derailed by inter-departmental fighting and the lack of concrete, long-term ambitions for increasing recycling in England.
That is the main message from political opponents, trade associations, retailersand campaign groups, who have united in criticising the government policy document published yesterday (June 14) (see letsrecycle.com story) .
Criticism of the policy document ranges from attacks over its lack of long-term recycling targets to supposed broken promises from ministers on altering collection frequencies. And, one critic went as far as to brand the publication a failed review.
One of the most vocal critics was Mary Creagh, Labours shadow environment secretary, who drew attention to the lack of a comparable long-term ambitious target to match those of the devolved administrations.
Both Wales and Scotland have goals to recycle 70% of their waste by 2025, while England will only need to meet the European target of recycling 50% of waste by 2020.
She said: The governments policy for getting rid of rubbish are in chaos. They have broken their promise on bin collections and recycling. The Waste Review is a missed opportunity and will leave England with the weakest recycling targets in the UK.
The policy review is more about infighting going on in government between Eric Pickles and Caroline Spelman than it does about tackling waste, she added. Defra is still a department in need of special measures after this failed review.
These sentiments were echoed by rural charity Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), which was also disappointed to see its proposal for the introduction of deposit-based schemes dropped within the Review.
Samantha Harding, manager of the CPRE Stop the Drop campaign, said: This Waste Review has proved a huge missed opportunity. The government say they aspire to a zero waste economy yet they appear to be content allow UK recycling rates flat line at 40%.
BRC
Meanwhile, the retail trade body, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), was also critical of the documents lack of concrete policies. Despite the review touching on retail efforts in the section on food waste, the BRC claimed it did not address it effectively.
Bob Gordon, head of environment at BRC, said: After a long wait, this Waste Review is a disappointment. Specific commitments are missing and pledges which are made, such as on working with industry to reduce packaging, have been under way for months now.
Its great the government has realised that retailers are leading by example but its disappointing that its not match these efforts with any meaningful commitments of its own. What a shame in particular that effective actions to address the issue of food waste are missing.
Mr Gordon added that the review also fariled to deliver on a promise to look at what policies are need to reduce the amount of waste generated. Where are those policies? he said.
The Waste Review was also met with a feeling of disappointment from campaign group Friends of the Earth, which claimed that the policy document had managed to reduce ambition around improving waste efforts in England.
Julian Kirby, waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: Ministers should be helping to cut waste and boost recycling but theyve produced a half-hearted document that takes waste policy back in time.
And, Mr Kirby added that the Waste Review had only managed to deliver a positive action in removing ludicrous plans suggested by ministers that councils could be forced to reintroduce weekly waste collections.
Conversely, the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) welcomed thr publication of the Waste Review, stating that it was a move of significance towards harnessing waste as a resource a topic that the CBI said was a much wider issue than household bin collections.
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