Environment secretary Caroline Spelman today (June 15) announced a complete review of all existing waste policies in a bid to deliver the new government’s ambition of “zero waste”.
Speaking at the Futuresource exhibition and conference in London Docklands, Mrs Spelman said that the review was needed to bring all existing policies up-to-date and to look at the economic opportunities of reducing waste.
Mrs Spelman said: “We have been slow in moving in the right direction with recycling rates. The direction of travel is right – it’s the pact that’s the problem. We need to go faster and we need to go further.”
“Today we are starting a review of all existing waste policies. This was last done in 2007 pre credit-crunch and pre-recession.
“There will be a fundamental review to ensure all government interventions are the right ones to address the challenges I have mentioned. The review will look at all aspects of waste policy including household and business waste and recycling services. Its aim will be to maximise the contribution that can be made in creating green jobs and building the green economy.”
The review will be carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in partnership with BIS, DECC, local government and preliminary findings are expected in the Spring.
Mrs Spelman criticised the former Labour government for focusing too much on household waste, and said that the new government would support businesses – rather than “stifle” them with red tape – in order to tackle it.
She added that both central and local government would be encouraged to help businesses in this task, pledging to provide more of a “customer service” in this respect. She said that retailers and businesses would be encouraged to cut food waste and packaging in particular.
Responding to a question from Alison Knight from RecycleBank on the issue, she said: ” I think we really need to help businesses with this. The cost of disposing of waste for business in a tough environment is challenging so we want to support them. They need to enjoy a sense of being incentivised to do it.
“I shall be working very closely with CLG on this one.”
On the issue of packaging, Mrs Spelman took a swipe at the retailers and packaging sector, commenting: “We want to create new public consciousness about waste.. as a first step, everyone involved in the packaging supply chain needs to do much better in their communications with consumers than they have been in the past.”
Planning
On the issue of planning, the minister added that plans were afoot to address apparent anomalies in the planning system which meant that many waste facilities were stuck in the planning system – which the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority claimed meant that facilities were often held up by the same council which was proposing them.
She said: “I feel passionately about the need to simplify and speed up the planning system. Eric Pickles will be bringing through a piece of legislation on this issue and there will be a presumption in favour of sustainable development which includes waste management.
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At the event, the minister also re-iterated the government’s support for incentivising recycling rather that punishing those who do not recycle through schemes like that being trialled in Windsor and Maidenhead, which she attended the launch of last week (see letsrecycle.com story) .
The waste review will include:
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The effect of waste policies on local communities and individual households, and how local authorities can best work with people to make the best decisions;
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Maximising the contribution of the waste and recycling industries to the UK economically and environmentally;
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How the country works towards a “zero waste economy” and drastically reduce the amount of waste created and valuable resourced sent to landfill, looking at the entire life cycle;
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A new approaches to dealing with commercial and industrial waste and promoting responsibility deals”, reducing the amount of waste generated by production and retail.
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