‘Far more ambitious’ waste policy needed in UK

The call is made in a review of the Governments Waste Strategy: six months on published today (January 9) by EEF, the manufacturers organisation.

As part of its review, EEF is calling for a new approach to legislation which it says is currently unnecessarily complex, confusing and based on out of date assumptions. For example, it says that the government still assumes waste will be sent to landfill, even though less than a quarter of waste manufacturing is disposed this way. In addition, it claims that all companies should have access to local authority recycling facilities, regardless of where they are based.

EEF claims the government should work with industry to develop a resource strategy that will enable materials, particularly those in scare supply, to be re-used and to speed up their movement across the economy. Such a strategy would make it easier for companies to make the most out of the waste they and others produce and reduce our dependence on imports, it says.

The call was backed by an EEF survey of senior manufacturing leaders showing 80% now regard a shortage of raw materials as a risk to their business. Of these, two thirds said it was their top risk. In addition, 1 in 6 companies said that a shortage of raw materials is now a brake on growth.

Commenting, EEF head of climate & environment, Gareth Stace, said: Waste policy has for sometime been the forgotten element of the green agenda. But, with global demand for resources expected to soar in the future and manufacturers already rating raw material shortages as their biggest risk, we must not miss the opportunity to make the best of what we have.

Government policy has gone some way towards recognising these risks but to date it has not gone far enough. We now need a more ambitious approach which involves a resource strategy for the UK, simplified legislation and an improved infrastructure involving better access to local authority recycling.

Priorities

EEFs report sets out three key priorities for more ambitious action:

1. A clear and long term resource management strategy setting out a vision for how the UK will make the most of available resources.

EEFs claims that as well as leading to significant competitive opportunities for manufacturers in resource efficiency, such a strategy would reduce the amount of waste the UK exports. Currently, fifteen million tonnes of waste is exported. EEF claims that this is exported due to infrastructure shortfalls and market forces and says that a resource strategy could ensure more of these resources are captured for domestic use.

2. Waste legislation and guidance must be simplified to allow businesses to fully contribute to sustainable waste and resource management.

EEF claims that rebalancing waste legislation is neededto view waste as a resource to be re-used where possible and not disposed as a first option. It claims that UK legislation is currently ‘twenty years out of date’ in this respect and the sheer volume and complexity of waste legislation makes it difficult for companies to know how to comply and make best use of these resources. An up to date better regulation and smarter policy framework would both enhance commercial opportunities whilst protecting the environment. it claims.

3. Facilitate speedy delivery of necessary infrastructure and advisory services.

Currently a lack of convenient and affordable recycling facilities is a major barrier to business waste recycling, says the EEF, which has set out a number of recommendations to address this. In particular, while government recently published the Business Recycling and Waste Services Commitment, which sets out the principles of how local authorities can help make it easier for businesses to recycle (see letsrecycle.com story), it is concerned that the agreement is voluntary. EEF is calling for this commitment to be part of national policy aimed at firms of all.

EEF has a membership of over 6,000 companies of all sizes, employing some 900,000 people from every sector of engineering, manufacturing, engineering construction and technology-based industries.