The coalition governments pledge to deliver a zero waste economy is being undermined by in-fighting, incoherence and antipathy, Friends of the Earth has claimed.
The campaign group made the comments in an analysis of the coalition governments environmental policy, entitled The Greenest Government Ever: One Year On, which was published on Saturday (May 7).
The report addresses a host of environmental policy areas, ranging from renewable energy to carbon reduction. It assesses waste and recycling policy ahead of the forthcoming Waste Review, which is expected to be published next month.
Setting out a landscape of delayed legislation, incoherence between government departments and reluctance to set hard targets on recycling rates, Friends of the Earth claims there are grave concerns over how a zero waste economy could be achieved.
The report states: The coalition government got off to a good start by cancelling outright a number of PFI mass-burn incinerator schemes on the grounds that they did not represent value for money. Since then, Eric Pickles has reversed a number of decisions by local authorities against questionable energy for waste [sic] schemes.
In addition, the campaign group claims that over the tenure of the coalition government so far, a new antipathy to setting targets has developed, with the government seeking to be viewed as non-prescriptive.
Friends of the Earth claim that the coalition has a fear of telling people what to do and that a lack of consultation over target-setting does not bode well for the likely contents of the forthcoming Waste Review.
There has already been indication that the Waste Review will include no centrally-set local authority recycling targets.
Business waste
An area given particular focus in the Friends of the Earth report is that of business and business waste regulation. The campaign group claims that the government has made clear that it will not be adding any further regulatory burden to businesses.
And, it claims that fierce lobbying by the Department for Business, Industry and Skills has led Defra to not raise the targets for packaging waste. This move is, according to Friends of the Earth, highly regrettable and stands to weaken the value of packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs).
One major issue for the campaign group is the perceived difference in policies on waste between Defra and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
It states: Defra is waging another battle with Eric Pickles at DCLG, whose relentless bullying of local authorities to revert to weekly waste collections threatens not only to slow or even reduce rates of recycling, but to add additional costs to local authorities of at least 0.5 billion over four years.
Further to this, Friends of the Earth claims that there have been delays on legislation relating to capturing methane from landfill, energy from waste, and an update on the Greenhouse Gas Inventory to include waste-related emissions.
It also claims that there was nothing in the Budget relating to waste, and no reference to the Landfill Tax.
Response
Commenting on the Friends of the Earth Report, a government spokeswoman stressed the work undertaken since the coalition came into office in May 2010 and said it had achieved an excellent record on greenpolicies.
She told letsrecycle.com: Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman played a major role in securing an historic global deal to protect wildlife and habitats and, in a tough economic climate, increased the budget for farming environmental schemes by 80%, and provided hundreds of millions of pounds to clean up Englands rivers and support international forestry and wildlife projects.
We are currently undertaking the biggest reform of the electricity market since privatisation to secure billions in investment for low carbon electricity generation. And there is legislation going through parliament right now to bring about the Green Deal, the first scheme of its kind in the world, cutting carbon and bills in millions of homes across the UK.”
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