'Zero Waste: A load of rubbish?' aimed to answer Liberal Democrat councillors' questions about what the concept of Zero Waste offered them and was chaired by Sue Doughty, the Liberal Democrat MP for Guildford, who launched the UK's Zero Waste campaign in the summer.
“A lot of people are becoming interested in Zero Waste,” Ms Doughty told delegates, “it's a fresh approach to dealing with the large responsibility that is now on all of us.”
The seminar was organised by the Environment Agency, which has taken a cautious view on the Zero Waste campaign, endorsing its positive ambitions without pushing for local authorities to specifically push for the complete package.
Speaking at the seminar, the Agency's chief executive Baroness Barbara Young said: “We've got to take the first faltering steps along the road rather than jumping ahead of ourselves, but the Agency would encourage putting up signposts to help get us there.”
Concerns
Roger Symonds, executive member for economic regeneration and environment at Bath and North-East Somerset, which was the first authority to sign up to the Zero Waste charter, was also on hand at the seminar to respond to concerns that it wasn't a realistic aim.
He said that people misunderstood the concept of Zero Waste, that it attempts to change councils' focus on short-term actions for a long-term approach at changing public attitudes and our “throwaway society”.
“Zero waste doesn't come from some mad green person writing down a charter,” he said. “It comes from Japan, where Toyota said they wanted zero defects in their vehicles, and then applied the successful formula to their waste and ruled out 98% of their waste.”
Mr Symonds said that although there were currently problems in dealing with some wastes such as mixed waste and hazardous waste, Zero Waste could be achievable in as little as 20 years.
Education
Education is crucial to Zero Waste according to the Bath and North East Somerset councillor, but in teaching school children about waste, Mr Symonds said that the whole school had to be involved. He said that if children were learning about recycling in class, and there were no recycling facilities in the school to reinforce the message, that education would be wasted.
Steve Lee, head of waste regulation and strategy at the Environment Agency, agreed with the need for education, but said that it should not stop with schools.
“The education material is there in the national curriculum,” he said, “we're very successful at getting the message across. But all the other generations aren't much good at leading by example.”
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