Ray Georgeson, director of policy and evaluation at the Waste and Resources Action Programme, issued the warning to those in the recycling sector “engaged in heated debate” over issues like material quality and commingled collections.
My plea to all of those engaged in heated debate about what is right and wrong in recycling is – in the heat of the argument, please don't lose sight of the prize.
Ray Georgeson, WRAP
He said Defra budget cuts, negative press coverage and the removal of council recycling targets, together with a greater emphasis within government to promote very large waste disposal plants all present greater challenges to recyclers over the next few years.
Writing in his latest letsrecycle.com opinion column, Mr Georgeson said he was concerned that an industry “which doesn't really speak with one, clear, unified voice” could lose sight of the task ahead.
He said: “A divided and confused recycling sector runs the risk of missing the opportunity to expand even further and maximise the environmental gains possible from its activities, in the face of a concerted effort by others to capture the public's attention -and their resources – as the business of ‘alternative waste treatment' starts to see a major opportunity present itself.”
Targets
Outlining the key challenges ahead, Mr Georgeson said that despite Defra's new English Waste Strategy pledging to increase recycling and composting, this aim was being contradicted by the replacing of statutory recycling targets with Local Area Agreements.
He explained that these Local Area Agreements were a plan for local areas drawn-up between local and central government in which waste indictors were not compulsory.
The relaxing of recycling targets comes as Defra cuts back on its spending for recycling, as it faces pressure unforeseen circumstances such as flooding (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, the funding that is available to local authorities for waste management is being funnelled towards dealing with non-recyclable waste, such as the £2 billion of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits that will be available over the next three years.
Mr Georgeson said: “This will inevitably steer towards large scale waste disposal infrastructure unless councils and the recycling industries can respond creatively to the challenge of using this resource effectively to expand recycling and composting.”
Planning
Planning reforms – via the Planning Bill currently proceeding through Parliament – may also see local authority projects favouring very large waste disposal plants rather than smaller recycling options, he suggested.
He said: “This may have the effect of ‘fast tracking' very large scale waste disposal facilities that meet the need to divert waste from landfill, but further run the risk of such developments ‘crowding out' the sustainable growth of recycling and composting.”
At a time when recycling faces an uphill struggle to gain a favourable image in the national press, Mr Georgeson also pointed out that Defra is looking into actively campaigning in support of more energy-from-waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mr Georgeson issued a warning to those in the recycling sector engaged in debates over issues like material quality and how best to collect material.
He said: “My plea to all of those engaged in heated debate about what is right and wrong in recycling is – in the heat of the argument, please don't lose sight of the prize. And that prize – of a much greater proportion of our wasted resources being sustainably recycled or composted rather than burned, gently dried or any combination thereof – is still worth striving for.”
To read Mr Georgeson's comments in full, see letsrecycle.com's opinion section.
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