Government urged to act on waste data transparency

Unveiling the consultancy’s ‘Waste Data in the UK’ report in Westminster yesterday (8 February), Ricardo-AEA’s Simone Aplin argued that regulatory intervention is needed in order to create a level playing field for operators – such as those reporting on volumes of commercial and industrial waste.

The report, which has been produced for the RWM Ambassadors, analyses the current system of data provision in the UK. It was launched at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Party, chaired by Labour MP Barry Sheerman.

Recommendations published in the report include encouraging publication of open source data, a review of WasteDataFlow to ensure local authorities are working to the same definitions, and the possibility of larger contractors chipping bins to collect more data on waste arisings.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Ms Aplin said the industry has been “going round in circles” for too long on the waste data debate – citing previous failed attempts to gather voluntary submissions of waste data from businesses.

In the past, industry stakeholders have recognised gaps in waste intelligence where reporting is not covered by regulation or where deregulation has occurred, such as waste managed by exempt sites and material meeting the end of waste criteria, the report claims. However, efforts to address complex gaps in data have so far stalled due to a lack of cooperation between stakeholder groups and limited funding.

Arisings

Ms Aplin noted: “We don’t know much about arisings for commercial and industrial and construction and demolition waste, but there is quite a lot of information through the site returns. We don’t know much about waste prevention, we don’t know much about how much waste is being reused. Composition data is patchy and waste permit exemptions are still a big gap.”

She added: “Without government providing a stronger role in strategy and regulations to make that level playing field, it would be naïve to think some sort of voluntary agreement would be easy to do.”

The message is unlikely to chime with that of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, which is currently engaged in a government drive to save British businesses £10 billion by cutting ‘unnecessary’ regulation where possible (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, while there was interest from the floor in a consultation in Scotland to make electronic Duty of Care (edoc) mandatory, few delegates expressed an appetite for sharing information that could put businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

However Ms Aplin did conclude that despite voluntary agreements not working in the past “that is not a reason not to try again”.

‘Crackers’

Speaking from the floor in his capacity as chief executive of CIWM and RWUK, Steve Lee said it would be “crackers” to expect companies to give away commercially confidential data that could put jeopardise their market position.

He added: “I don’t know what the UK position is on the Circular Economy package. I suspect we are silent at a European level. I want to know what they [the government] are going to do to help, but the industry also has to own part of this problem.”

The session ended with a warning from Ms Aplin that without government leadership, it would be a “long old trudge” to improved data reporting.