But, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that the consistency project ‘remains on the agenda’ within its ongoing work package.
The guidance for councils – which would form a national framework to guide more consistent waste collection policies in England including the role of food waste collections – had been due to be released today (20 July) but now publication has been scrapped until later in the year.
Delays have been caused by the government reshuffle and ministerial changes within Defra, which saw Thérèse Coffey join the Department and Rory Stewart been moved to the Department for International Development (see letsrecycle.com story).
As yet, no minister has been formally assigned the waste and resources brief within Defra and a spokeswoman for the Department confirmed that discussions are still going on internally as to ministerial responsibilities.
‘On the agenda’
And, on the consistency work, the spokeswoman denied that a date had been confirmed for the release of the project, but said: “Recycling consistency is still very much on the agenda, and it is expected to be published in due course.”
A spokesperson for WRAP, added: “Following the ministerial reshuffle, the publication of our work on greater consistency in household recycling in England is now expected later this year. Improving consistency in household recycling is still very much a priority for WRAP and Defra and we continue to work closely in this area.”
WRAP had convened a steering group involving local authorities, government officials and representatives from the waste and recycling industries to lead on the consistency work.
The project had also been seeking a handful of local authorities willing to pilot the recommendations on collections, in a bid to create a case for more standardised collection systems. Funding support is due to be made available.
‘Madness’
Recycling consistency had been identified as a major issue by the former Defra minister Stewart, who had decried the ‘madness’ of the variety of collection systems adopted by councils (see letsrecycle.com story).
Further details of the project came to light at the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) conference in Birmingham earlier this month where Linda Chrichton, head of resource management at WRAP, said: “We are leading an initiative on behalf of the minister to look at what the opportunities might be across local authorities to introduce greater consistency into collection services.
“That’s greater consistency in the materials that are collected as well as opportunities to see whether the variations in the systems out there can be rationalised to make it more cost effective overall for everyone.
“Food waste is going to be at the heart of that work around consistency. So there’s a very clear link between the Food Waste Action Plan and further work around collections, which we hope to be announcing later in the summer.”
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