Work begins on national waste prevention plan

Work is underway to develop the first ever national waste prevention plan for England, Defra minister Richard Benyon revealed this week (January 10).

 

This project will input both to the current review of waste policy as well as to the preparation of a National Waste Prevention Programme by December 2013

 
Richard Benyon, environment minister

The government is expected to publish the plan by December 2013 under the revised EU Waste Framework Directive, but, in response to a written parliamentary question Mr Benyon this week (January 10) said work on the plan was also feeding into the government's review of waste policy, which is expected to report this spring.

He explained that the early stages of the work involved a project reviewing existing evidence on business waste prevention.

“This project will input both to the current review of waste policy as well as to the preparation of a National Waste Prevention Programme by December 2013, as required under the revised Waste Framework Directive,” he said.

The work on the plan was being jointly run by Defra's waste and sustainable consumption and production teams, Mr Benyon noted.

And, he explained that the business waste prevention work was “an in-depth scoping study to help examine the current knowledge base as well as identify priority gaps that need to be filled by subsequent research studies”.

Details of the study on Defra's website reveal that the mapping exercise, entitled ‘Business Waste Prevention Synthesis Review', aims to look in particular at evidence in relation to the following issues:

• Research and demonstration project on ‘cleaner production' and waste minimisation;

• Eco-design and sustainable consumption and prevention;

• Business attitudes and behaviour on waste prevention and resource efficiency, focusing “on what works and does not work” and, in particular, on SMEs;

• Voluntary measures;

• The use and effectiveness of policy instruments;

• Compiling information on the effectiveness of various measures to allow their effectiveness to be compared

• Waste prevention in six specific commercial and industrial sectors, of which food & drink and construction & demolition are specified by Defra;

• Compiling at least 30 of the “most useful, informative, effective and replicable” case studies from previous work

• How business waste prevention has been measured in previous work.

The business waste prevention project, which Defra's website reveals is costing £179,814, is being carried out by Aylesbury-based consultancy Oakdene Hollins, with support from not-for-profit organisation the Resource Recovery Forum and the Brook Lyndhurst consultancy.

London-based Brook Lyndhurst's website states the mapping exercise is scheduled for completion in March 2011, with the aim of the outputs following a “modular reporting style to assist the transfer of knowledge and evidence into the policy context”.

Waste Framework Directive

The requirement for EU member states to develop national waste prevention plans by the end of 2013 is enshrined in Article 29 of the revised EU Waste Framework Directive, which was formally took effect in the UK on December 12, 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).

As part of the newly-statutory five-step waste hierarchy, the Directive also includes a legal requirement for waste prevention – including reuse – to be the first preference in all waste policy and infrastructure decisions.

The significance of the issue was further highlighted by Defra when it formally launched its review of England's waste policy in July 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story), where the department asked for views on the how to prioritise prevention.

In particular, it sought opinions on the role government, businesses and individuals had to play in waste reduction, as well as how businesses can be encouraged to design and manufacture products which produce less waste and on which, if any, waste streams should be prioritised for prevention.