Government urged to tackle business waste

The Science and Technology Committee has published a Waste Reduction report calling for efforts on waste reduction to be extended from solely making demands on individuals to reducing the high waste levels of companies – which accounted for nearly 68 million tonnes a year in 2002-03, when last estimates were made.

Since October last year, the committee has been looking at how to reduce the high level of waste in the UK – taking evidence from ministers including Joan Ruddock and waste management experts on how to achieve this.

And, while the report welcomed the fact that waste prevention has been recognised as an important strand in the Government Waste Strategy 2007, it said this needed to be backed up by “appropriate policies” and a “holistic approach” which took into account all waste streams.

In particular, it recommended that Government restructure local authority waste targets and costs which currently focus on decreasing the weight of domestic waste sent to landfill and allow them to address commercial and industrial waste by providing support and disposal facilities to businesses.

To help finance waste reduction measures, the committee also suggested that a proportion of landfill tax revenue be ring-fenced to fund waste reduction initiatives – something which the LGA has been campaigning for for months (see letsrecycle.com story).

The report also urged the Government to develop a strategy for tackling commercial and industrial waste and to take steps to ensure that as much as possible is being done to encourage businesses of all sizes to reduce waste – expressing “extreme disappointment” that funding had been reduced to some of the main environmental business support bodies helping them to do this, such as Envirowise, NISP and WRAP.

Commenting on the study, committee chairman Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan said: “There has been an impressive increase in recycling of domestic waste in the last few years but that only represents a tiny fraction of the waste generated in the UK. It is time for the government to move its priorities from household waste to the far greater problem of industrial and commercial waste.”

“The target regime for local authorities must be changed so, instead of a focus only on individuals' waste, priority is given to ensuring businesses are doing their bit to reduce waste.”

He added: “We were also very disappointed to hear that the budgets of so many of the Government agencies created to encourage more sustainable business practices are being cut. This sends out entirely the wrong message at a time when reducing commercial waste both for economic and environmental reasons is more important than ever.”

Responsibility

Also in the report, the committee recommended that sustainability be embedded into the design curriculum and promoted the introduction of individual producer responsibility over waste to encourage companies to take their duty of care to reduce waste seriously.

The Committee point out that leaders in waste reduction in industries such as waste electronic good manufacture are calling for individual producer responsibility rather than industry-wide collective producer responsibility, to ensure their own good practice is not undermined by companies who make less efforts to reduce waste associated with their products.

It said: “Implementing individual producer responsibility will be a long and complex process, but will be crucial in establishing the direct responsibility necessary to encourage manufacturers to reduce their waste.”

To support this drive, it suggested that Defra work with the Treasury to implement lower VAT rates for products which used sustainable materials and fewer virgin resources, commenting: “We were disappointed by the unwillingness of Defra to discuss fiscal incentives.”

Lord O'Neill said: “An important step would be to introduce true producer responsibility for waste associated with a company's products so manufacturers who behave irresponsibly face financial consequences and those who are doing the right thing are supported.

“We would also like to see the VAT regime reformed so that products that have a long life cycle or can be easily and cheaply repaired rather than replaced are made economically more attractive. This would be an important step in turning away from the ‘throwaway' consumer culture we currently have.”

Data

The House of Lords Science committee also said it was “not satisfied” that the Government was giving a high enough priority to the collection of data on waste – something that has been especially lacking for non-domestic waste streams.

They said: “The amalgamation of administrative data sources may cost less than comprehensive surveys, but saving money is this was is a short-sighted approach to tackling waste.

“We recommend that the Government arrange for comprehensive surveys to collect data on the various waste streams in the UK thereby enabling the formation of an overall strategic direction and policies,” they added.

LGA

Responding to the report, councillor Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association's environment board, agreed that more needed to be done to tackle business waste and that introducing a “polluter pays” principle would help local authorities to manage rising costs.

However, he stressed that the Government must follow the report's recommendation for funding if councils were to provide wider recycling services and stressed that some landfill tax should indeed be returned.

He said: “As the report recognised, the proceeds from Landfill Tax must be spent on improving recycling facilities. The Government should return this money to councils so it can be invested in services people want.”