Deadline nears for Zero Waste Place proposals

The Defra initiative intends to set up three to five dedicated places, including cities, towns and rural communities, with the aim of creating areas that that “go as far as possible in reducing the environmental impact of waste”.

In guidelines published for the ‘Zero Waste Places' initiative, which was a commitment within the Waste Strategy 2007, Defra explained that it intended to encourage businesses and local authorities to work together to reduce waste, and would also like to see involvement from the third sector.

Local authorities will be able to submit proposals until Wednesday September 17, with applicants to be informed by the end of the month if they have been successful.

A spokesman for Defra told letsrecycle.com that he was unable to say how much interest there had been in the project until the proposal period had closed, but confirmed that applicants would be informed “soon after” on whether on not they had been chosen.

Requirements

According to the Defra guidelines, the definition of ‘place' could include a market, retail park, high street, village, town or a whole authority and the department expected local authorities applying to make a “significant attack” on waste, especially in the area of waste prevention.

The application document identifies the essential requirements for a zero waste place as detailing clear actions for achieving zero waste and, for each action, a commitment to achieving this goal.
They must also provide evidence that the responsibility for the commitments is made clear within each participating organisation.

And, applicants would also be required to include “challenging, measureable goals or targets as part of the actions”, be committed to spreading good practice on identifying and overcoming barriers and also to explain what solutions worked.

At the same time, they are urged to attract media coverage and popular support for the campaign.

Proposals will be assessed against criteria including scope, outcome and objective, by a Zero Waste Place Project Board, with the BREW Centre for Local Authorities informing councils if they have been selected.

Demonstrate

The ‘Zero Waste Places' initiative intends to demonstrate what reductions in waste can be made by “concerted efforts across the full range of stakeholders, including local offices, factories and shops” and the proposal also intends to create “exemplars of good environmental practice”.

Plans to introduce the initiative were first discussed in July last year (see letsrecycle.com story) with Defra now extending the programme from three to as many as five sites.

Successful applicants for the project would be charged with identifying barriers and finding solutions to reducing waste in their areas and expected to report their findings back to Defra by March 2009.