Speaking as he opened the CIWM Annual Conference and Exhibition yesterday in Torbay, Alistair Lamont said that for long term waste goals, the UK needs to plan now, and to do so it needs some kind of strategic body.
Mr Lamont said: “Perhaps now is the time for a Strategic Waste Authority, putting things together in waste. But, perhaps we will be forced to settle for a strategic waste service.”
The government has been reviewing calls for a Strategic Waste Authority, and environment minister Elliot Morley at Torbay yesterday that it was still very much an option.
Mr Morley said: “We have an open mind towards the role and benefits of a Strategic Waste Authority. We don’t want to go down that route if it doesn’t deliver anything more than we have at this time.
“If there is a strong argument for a Strategic Waste Authority then I am certainly willing to consider it. But we do not want to create an extra level of bureaucracy.”
International
The theme for this year’s CIWM Conference is “beyond the horizon”, and the new CIWM president presented members with his views on how the waste industry is to look beyond its horizon. In particular, he said that the industry had to work within its international context, learning from abroad but also carrying out its international responsibilities.
Mr Lamont said that climate change was one international responsibility in which the waste industry had a major role to play, replacing the use of fossil fuels by making more use of recovery energy from waste.
“We know that demand (for fossil fuels) far outstrips the renewal, so should we not extract the energy from waste?” he said.
Mr Lamont suggested that low-calorie materials should be removed from waste to make it more conducive to use as a fuel. And, he said the public attitudes towards energy from waste would have to change.
“The public is against energy from waste, but crunch time is coming. We already have huge targets – we may reach our short term targets, but we’re not going to forever,” he said.
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