Mr Rogerson’s positive note towards waste and recycling came in a new Waste Management Plan for England published yesterday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
But, the plan does not signal a new direction for waste policy as it is designed to bring together current plans and policies already in place.
The document, which has been produced to meet policy statement requirements under Article 28 of the revised Waste Framework Directive, comes just days after Defra published its Waste Prevention Programme.
The Liberal-Democrat minister, Mr Rogerson, in a foreword to the Plan, wrote: “Where waste is unavoidably created, we want most of it to be reused or recycled. Products will be designed for repair, reuse and recycling and local authorities and waste companies will make it easy for us all to reuse and recycle goods. All of this will create a thriving resource management industry providing high quality feedstocks in place of virgin raw materials.
He went on to call for more joint working among local authorities, saying that “we already see may local authorities co-operating to save money and provide better services”.
The minister did confirm some future waste-related activities by his department, but the clear and surprising message in the document is that it is a case of ‘job done’ and no significant new measures regarding waste and recycling are needed.
“the Government does not consider that further exceptional measures are necessary at this time”
Future
Among future work will be regulations to improve quality at materials recycling facilities, now due out in early 2014 and targets to increase the recycling of plastic packaging to 42% by 2017.
The document is clear about future activities and states: “the Government does not consider that further exceptional measures are necessary at this time beyond the already planned development of waste policy.”
Explaining what the plan actually means, Defra states: “The Governments preferred option for the Waste Management Plan for England is that it should be a compilation of existing and planned policies. This reflects the fact that there is already a comprehensive system of waste management policy and legislation in England.”
And, it considers it meets the aims of the revised Waste Framework Directive because: “There is a comprehensive regulatory framework for waste facilities and operations which is in place to prevent harm to the environment and human health.”
Policy measures
The Plan claims to set out a range of policy measures to encourage wastes to be treated in accordance with the waste hierarchy, thereby reducing the demand for and use of resources.
It also emphasises the achievements in recent years: “Over the past few years, there has been significant progress with waste and resource management in England. Recycling and composting of household waste has increased to 43% and business recycling rates have increased to 52%. Local authorities, who cover all household waste and some commercial and industrial waste, have reduced the amount of waste they send to landfill by about 60% since 2000.”
The Waste Management Plan confirms that the government is still looking at what it calls perceived issues between PRNs and PERNs domestic and export evidence of packaging recycling. But, the Plan points out how the export of materials for recycling is logical because the UK imports goods.
It states: “In turn, as well as importing and exporting goods, the UK imports nearly 250 thousand tonnes of waste materials and exports approximately 15 million tonnes of materials for recycling per year.
“This ensures that much of the recyclable waste collected by local authorities and waste management companies is ultimately recycled. It is natural in our economy, where consumption of goods outweighs domestic manufacture, that a responsible closed loop approach to products will involve the return of some materials from the UK for recycling and reincorporation in manufacture overseas. The global trade in material for re-use, recycling and recovery generates significant benefits for global resource use, reducing carbon emissions globally and helping to meet recycling targets.
The plan can be viewed as a PDF at: Waste Management Plan.
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