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ESA chief seeks higher place for waste in DEFRA agenda

The Environmental Services Association and its members are “willing and able” to help government in its work to achieve the UK’s waste strategy.

This was the message to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday from Dirk Hazell, chief executive of the ESA speaking at its annual conference in London.

Mr Hazell said in the past 20 years he had never seen a trade association which had such enthusiasm as the ESA had for government policy. And, he emphasised that the industry was willing to make the massive investment required but that government policy, such as removing energy from waste from renewables eligibility was hampering investment plans.

But, he expressed disappointment that in a document about DEFRA’s work issued this summer, the waste strategy is not referred to. “In DEFRA’s grand strategy there is no reference to the waste strategy or the Landfill Directive or any reference to resource efficiency, nor the use of secondary resources.”

He urged Secretary of State Margaret Beckett to now signal as a “matter of great urgency” that secondary resource management is an essential policy for her department.

Mr Hazell also warned that a lack of funding for the waste strategy could lead to its failure.

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