The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has revealed it will be selecting around three councils to promote good practice and inspire waste reduction.
Roland Moore, of Defra's local authority waste performance unit, told letsrecycle.com: “We would like to hear from a lot of local authorities and then we hope to choose three areas to say they would like to do this and in turn they would hopefully receive government funding to promote the work they are doing, like the existing 10 beacon waste authorities.”
Commercial
Under the proposed scheme, “zero waste” areas are likely to be obliged to tackle both municipal and commercial waste. The third sector could also be involved.
The zero waste projects will be run in the “least bureaucratic way possible” and the department said it was aware of the good work currently done by many authorities.
However, the government will also be looking at councils who are not already revered as stirling examples to potentially help boost their performance.
Mr Moore said: “The department may be looking for local authorities which are not already held up as good examples but who will have to show an improvement.”
Strategy
The zero waste initiative was originally proposed in the government's revised English Waste Strategy as published in May (see letsrecycle.com story) which said it was due to start in the Autumn.
A similar concept to zero waste has been promoted in Scotland, but it remains to be seen how it will be interpreted there (see letsrecycle.com story).
Councils interested in becoming a zero waste area should contact Mr Moore at roland.moore@defra.gsi.gov.uk.
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