Jonathan Sayeed, the shadow junior minister responsible for waste issues, said that the government has been signing up to European directives without providing the support to implement them.
“The Government's handling of the European packaging waste directive provides an example of their leap before you look environmental policy,” Mr Sayeed said. “It is easy and inviting to prove one's European credentials by signing up to regulations and directives but then to muddle through on the home implementation front.
Taking part in a special adjournment debate on the impact of the packaging waste regulations on the packaging industry, the Conservative junior minister said that the government's achievement in recycling has so far been in the “easiest areas” of commercial and industrial waste.
He said: “We have to meet higher packaging waste recycling targets over the next four years. To do so, we must extract additional packaging waste from the household waste stream and develop recycling markets. That will be achieved only if there is investment in household collection, sorting and reprocessing schemes.”
Kerbside
Figures from the Packaging Federation raised in the debate, which revealed that up to 80% of households in the UK would need a kerbside collection scheme by the end of 2006 if the current European Union proposals are to be met.
Mr Sayeed said: “The suggested target levels for 2006 to 2008 will require between 1.2 million and 2.7 million tonnes of additional packaging recovery in the United Kingdom. That is a massive increase and the cost will be considerable. Even an extra 50,000 tonnes of packaging from household waste would require an investment of around 10 million. So even with the lowest figure of 1.2 million extra tonnes, we are talking about 240 million.”
The shadow junior minister also called for more of an incentive for manufacturers and retailers to investigate less environmentally damaging forms of packaging.
In defence of the government, the Minister for Rural Affairs, Alun Michael, blamed the Conservative Party for the state of UK recycling. Standing in for the absent Environment Minister Michael Meacher, Mr Michael said: “For 18 years, they did too little to tackle waste, which is why there is now a need for urgency and for pressure on the industry and local government to assist us in doing what is needed.”
Debate
Commenting on the debate, the chief executive of the Packaging Federation, Ian Dent, was pleased that packaging issues are beginning to receive notice at the appropriate, national level. However, there was some annoyance expressed that the government could not send someone to the debate who had knowledge of the issues.
Mr Dent said: “The only disappointment of this worthy debate was the Ministerial response, which was delegated to the Rt. Hon. Alun Michael, Minister for Rural Affairs, who had to defer nearly all the questions to written answers due to his lack of knowledge.”
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