Environment Agency calls for more focus on business waste

Speaking at an oral evidence session for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, held at Westminster yesterday (October 15), the chief executive of the EA, Dr Paul Leinster, and its head of waste, Liz Parkes, both explained that success in boosting recycling rates for household waste meant that attention should now be paid to other waste streams.

Ms Parkes told the select committee, which is holding an inquiry into the Waste Strategy for England 2007, that: “I don't think we've been wrong to have the focus on municipal waste. But we do feel that, having got measures in place, now is the time to focus on industrial and commercial waste.”

And, her view was echoed by Dr Leinster, who agreed that “the waste strategy has had, rightly, a focus on municipal waste,” adding that “now I think the time is right to start looking at some of these other waste streams”.

Dr Leinster explained that the commercial and industrial sector – which accounts for more waste than households – would support recycling and reuse if it could see an economic benefit in it, explaining that “the recycling and reuse rate in industry is higher than municipal waste because of the economic connection”.

Disincentive

The EA chief executive pointed towards the fact that, if a local authority collects trade waste it counts as municipal waste and is therefore covered by LATS targets, as being a potential disincentive for councils to promote their commercial waste collections.

“If there was some way of being able to use the same facilities but waste was segregated in some way then that would clearly be of benefit,” he explained.

And, Ms Parkes added that, “Small businesses need to be helped, if there's a facility then lets make it accessible for commercial waste.”

Dr Leinster concluded that: “We have to be promoting easy ways for doing the right thing.”

CIWM

The hearing's emphasis on commercial and industrial waste was continued by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management's (CIWM) chief executive Steve Lee, who told the committee that “we believe there's a very important role for industrial and commercial waste to play here.”

However, Robert Lisney, the chair of CIWM's special strategy group, warned that: “The agenda for local authorities to become more involved in commercial and municipal waste integration is to be encouraged, but they'll very much need to be shown how to do it.”

Waste Framework Directive

With the European Council of Ministers expected to consider the revised Waste Framework Directive next Monday (October 20) (see letsrecycle.com story), Ms Parkes expressed her satisfaction with the changes made to the document.

“We're pleased that the whole directive has not been thrown up in the air,” she told the Committee, adding that “we're pleased that the fundamental structure hasn't been changed.”

However, she warned that “the devil, as ever, will be in the detail”.

Planning

The EA representatives were also asked about the impact that the planning system might have on developing new waste infrastructure.

Commenting on the planning system, Ms Parkes acknowledged: “It's the local democratic system, and waste facilities are still not popular,” adding that “its inevitable delays are built into the democratic process”.

She also said: “When industry puts its mind to it, it can get an application through in quite a reasonable time, but it does require a lot of forward planning.”

Dr Leinster explained that the development of new facilities would have to be accompanied by sea-change in opinion among residents near to proposed sites.

He said: “At some stage people do have to accept that facilities are required to deal with the waste that we produce.”

And, Ms Parkes added: “People have to make that linkage between what they're buying and what they're throwing away.”

WRAP

The committee also heard from Philip Ward, the director of local government services for the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), who, commenting business waste said “knowing precisely what to do about commercial and industrial is problematic”.

And, he added that WRAP would be willing to examine the area further: “If Defra were to commission us to do this work, I think we could make a very positive contribution to it.”

Asked about WRAP's budget cuts, which saw Defra reduce its funding for 2008-09 by 30% (see letsrecycle.com story) Mr Ward acknowledged that “we were disappointed by it, and we did have to trim back on programmes”, citing its local authority communication programmes and Recycle Now as examples of affected areas.

He explained: “We have done our best to make our stakeholders understand what we're doing and why we're doing it, and I think we've been successful in doing that.”

Commenting on the future of the organisation, after its current business plan ends in 2011, Mr Ward said that he believed there would still be a place for its agenda.

“We believe that the resource efficiency agenda will still be very important in 2011. Availability of resources will be something we haven't solved by 2011,” he said.