Speaking last night at the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group meeting in Westminster, Daniel Instone said there is “pretty widespread feeling where we should be going”, but concerning the shape of the waste strategy itself, “nothing is in, nothing is out”.
” It's fairly widely accepted that we have to treat waste as a resource, but the question is how. “
– Daniel Instone
Mr Instone, who has previously worked in the water policy arena, gave some idea of the questions that will be raised in the waste strategy consultation, which he said is coming out soon.
A new waste strategy is expected next year, and while he said the UK had achieved a great deal since the government's previous waste strategy was put together in 1999, “we have got an awful lot more to do”.
He said: “It's fairly widely accepted that we have to treat waste as a resource, but the question is how. We will be looking at the integration of municipal waste and other kinds of waste – commercial and industrial, construction and demolition waste, which makes up most of the waste in this country.”
Targets
He said the role of targets would need to be considered to “give a clear sense of where we are going”. And, he pledged a “clearer articulation on what we are going to do with energy-from-waste”, suggesting that material not going to recycling “should have some sort of value harnessed”.
In particular, Mr Instone identified “three key issues where there will be some hard choices”. These were extending producer responsibility for wastes, setting fiscal instruments to promote diversion from landfill and the local or regional governance of waste.
Regulation
The first issue Mr Instone raised was regulation and the possibility of extending producer responsibility for wastes. The question was put as to where the costs for dealing with waste should reside – whether costs should carry on being met by the taxpayer via local authorities or shift to companies and consumers.
He said: “Producer responsibility – what does that mean? More regulation or voluntary agreements? We may be faced with the situation that voluntary agreements may not be effective – but on the other hand the government is keen on reducing burdens on business. This is not straight forward.”
Prices
The second key issue Mr Instone put forward was prices – in regard to the economy and commercial viability of treating waste as a resource. While the government already uses instruments like the steadily increasing Landfill Tax, the Aggregates Levy and the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, Defra is considering whether sufficient mechanisms are in place to make the diversion of wastes from landfill viable.
Mr Instone said: “Waste is a resource – but have we got the prices right? What is the role of fiscal instruments? These might include virgin materials taxes, plastic bag taxes, and we're looking at variable charging with reductions in Council Tax.”
Regions
The third key point Mr Instone raised last night was how waste is governed locally and regionally. “We would do better to have larger units within the local government arena,” he suggested, “since it would counter the disconnects and bring economies of scale.”
| Related links: |
He pointed to the debate over the management of waste in London – Mayor Ken Livingstone is calling for a single London waste authority (see letsrecycle.com story) – as having wider implications for waste management in the UK as a whole.
However, Mr Instone warned that moving responsibility for waste management to a regional capacity might take away the local accountability of the service and go against the “neighbourhoods agenda”.
Register for free to comment