Labour commits to recycling targets review

A Labour government would review domestic recycling targets and play a more strategic role than the coalition in growing the industry, shadow recycling minister Barry Gardiner announced today (June 19).

Speaking in London at the CIWM and ESA conference, Mr Gardiner also said that if Labour are elected in 2015 it would improve waste data gathering, boost product design and increase the Green Investment Banks (GIB) borrowing powers.

His comments follow waste and resources minister Dan Rogersons interview with letsrecycle.com at the conference yesterday (June 18), during which the minister said he was opposed to setting higher statutory targets for recycling (see letsrecycle.com story).

Beginning his speech today, Mr Gardiner said he had been told to include jokes, but he explained that he had thought of only one, which was: The current government has a clear, thoughtful, persuasive, strategic vision for resource management.

He called the coalition government disingenuous for announcing last year that it would be stepping back from activities in waste and recycling while ignoring recommendations from the private sector.

Active role

Mr Gardiner suggested a Labour government would look to take a more active role even mooting the possibility of a government departmental restructure to ensure improved leadership on the circular economy.

He said this was needed to help combat risks associated with volatile commodity prices and encourage investment in infrastructure an issue recently highlighted by Biffa chief Ian Wakelin (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Gardiner said this volatility impacted on the UK economy growth, jobs and the cost of living: Government must play a strategic role to ensure that the UK has the sort of resource efficient economy that can be more competitive because it is more resilient to commodity price shocks.

Targets

Outlining his Partys policies for the sector, the shadow minister said that through the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Labour would review recycling targets in England and consider the impact in Scotland and Wales of the targets set by the devolved governments.

He said: Recycling targets should create long-term security for private investment in recycling and reprocessing infrastructure.

That is why, as part of a review of domestic recycling targets, Labour will consider the effect that the targets set by the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales have had on private investment there. We would require WRAP to conduct this review as part of their current financial settlement.

Investment

Highlighting the need for investment in infrastructure, Mr Gardiner said that the UK economy does not have the infrastructure to capitalise on the opportunity of the resources in our waste stream.

But, the shadow minister explained that the industry cannot expect the state and public money to provide finance to invest in the sector, but that Labour would increase the GIBs borrowing powers by allowing it to leverage money from private markets.

And, he said he would ask the Bank to conduct an investigation into the barriers to investment in waste and recycling infrastructure using its 2013 anaerobic digestion market report as a template.

Furthermore, in order to acquire more and better waste data, Mr Gardiner said Labour would commission a stern review of resource security to assess current and future risks.

Commenting on the speech, CIWM chief executive Steve Lee said: Mr Gardiner struck a chord with the audience today and CIWM was pleased to note the common ground between his words and the evidence CIWM has recently give to two Select Committees. The institution will definitely want to follow this up; we want to see these and other good ideas coming out of this conference translated into solid manifesto ambitions.