LARAC chair: councils can safeguard resources

Addressing delegates this morning (October 17) at the Chesford Grange Hotel, near Kenilworth, Ms Blizzard said that councils needed to reconsider their approach to waste management in the face of growing concerns over resource security.

Ms Blizzard, who is in her fourth and final year as chair of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) was critical of Defras waste strategy for England, which she described as laissez faire and lagging behind those of Scotland and Wales.

She said: Scotland and Wales have put their waste strategies together based on the sustainable use of resources and a desire to see the value of those resources kept for the benefit of the community.

Englands strategy seems somewhat laissez-faire and in a world where there is increasing concern over energy and food security, is it perhaps time for councils to reconsider their role as guardians of precious local resources, and using them to generate local value and local jobs?

Challenges

Ms Blizzard also urged councils to be mindful of changes in market conditions and government policy, citing recent bans on material entering countries in the Far East and the likely re-launch of the Judicial Review on commingling (see letsrecycle.com story) as potential obstacles for local authorities to have to overcome.

She commented: Its not so long ago that this conference was dominated by the crash in the commodities market, leaving outlets for low quality recyclables under threat. Such things have happened before, but with bans in Malaysia and possible bans in China what if the export market restricts, and does not recover?

The judicial review has the potential to impact on all our collections, and all the decisions leading up to their implementation. Worrying about the possible costs will not make one iota of difference to the outcome and as a result we are in serious danger of underestimating just what an impact the judicial review could have.

In a wide-ranging speech, encompassing many of the changes she had witnessed in her four years at the helm of LARAC, Ms Blizzard claimed that a number of significant battles had been won during that time.

She said: We have won some very significant battles along the way. Some of these we wont have to win again for example demonstrating that recycling does have environmental benefits, that the public take part en masse, that we can recycle on a level compared to the rest of Europe and that alternate weekly collections can work.

There have been some battles that we will need to re-win and this – perhaps more so in England than in other areas – includes the need for policy to be evidence based, rather than skewed by uninformed political dogma.