Government accused of hypocrisy over reuse

The Benefits of Reuse report was launched in London at WRAPs annual conference, which was entitled Relearning to Reuse: Getting the most out of scarce Resources.The studyfound that buying re-used items is saving UK households around 1 billion a year and that this was just a fraction of its potential.

WRAP chief executive Liz Goodwin said: The research findings are staggering. Current levels of reuse create financial savings to households of around 1 billion and reduce Co2 equivalent emissions by one million tonnes the same as taking 300,000 cars off the road.

But, Cat Fletcher, national representative and head of media at reuse organisation Freegle, suggested it was hypocritical of the government and its delivery bodies to be promoting reuse when funding for reuse organisations and third sector organisations was being cut on the ground.

Addressing the events keynote speaker, environment secretary Caroline Spelman, Ms Fletcher said: Could we have a commitment to stop funding cuts to community groups that are responsible for reuse? We have an organisation with 1.4 million people and I cant get funding. It is hypocrisy from what the government says it would like to be. But the resources are being taken away on ground level.

Responding to Ms Fletcher, Mrs Spelman pointed to the UKs large debts and the importance of being able to repay them.

But, she agreed that reuse work on the ground was important and suggested that local authorities should not be cutting funding to such services.

That is the front line for me and that is not where the cuts should fall, she said. It is not my department, it is handled by the Department for Communities and Local Government but [Communities Secretary] Eric [Pickles] would say the same. We have asked local authorities to make cuts from the back office efficiency savings and not the front line. Government has to be an enabler working in action with local groups. I hope that helps as a commitment from the centre of government.

Economic instruments

Mrs Spelman was then asked by Professor Cooper from Nottingham Trent University if the government had considered using economic instruments to encourage repair and reuse.
Professor Cooper referred to a speech given earlier in the day by environmentalist Jonathon Porritt, who had suggested that activities such as reuse went against the grain of profit making industry and that without being profitable, they would struggle.

He said: Have you considered the use of economic instruments to encourage repair? For instance removing employees national insurance contributions?

In response, Mrs Spelman said that the market provides what there is demand for.

She added: I grew up in quite straitened circumstances and my parents were always seeking to repair. This country had become a large economy and we have lost a lot of the resourcefulness of that war time generation of mothers. I think we are going back through another cycle. People are trying to make things last and I question whether we always need market intervention.

FRN

Concerns over funding for reuse were also aired following the event by the Furniture Re-Use Network, the umbrella organisation for UK furniture re-use groups. The event heard about how the FRN had teamed up with IKEA to reuse its cutomers old furniture.

In a statement, the organisation said: From FRNs perspective, there was a very strong message coming across from the audience that what the Government wants and says is happening particularly with the voluntary sector wont continue for much longer, because of funding cuts. There is a big disconnect between Government ideology and on-the-ground reality.

WRAP

Also at the conference, WRAP published results of the organisations work over the past three years and set out its future agenda. The organisation said it has met all the major published targets from its previous business plan, having helped keep 11 million tonnes of waste out of landfill, avoid 5.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions and generated 2bn of benefits to the UK economy.

Looking forward, food waste, recycling services for businesses and encouraging greater reuse of resources will be WRAPs top priorities, under the three-yearbusiness plan the organisation published in June 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).