At an Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG) event at the House of Commons yesterday (January 19), Mr Benn stated that building a sustainable economy, climate change and management of natural resources should be the main priority.
Referring to his experience as former environment secretary , Mr Benn said it was critical to make it easy for people to do the right thing when it came to recycling as well as to prove to them that the challenges can be overcome.
Mr Benn said: We have to make it easy for people to do the right thing given that we have come to understand as human beings that we can no longer the world as if the goods are endless.
We have a responsibility to make sure materials are recycled to the greatest extent possible.
He continued: This is a process of change but when we see things being done and when we recognise that we have to live with the consequences of our actions of what we have taken then people have come to have more confidence that its possible to meet the challenges.
Powerday
Also speaking at the event, Mark Bensted, managing director of waste and recycling firm Powerday, said that the waste sector was a victim of NIMBYism.
He said that the waste industry would benefit from a more strategic approach when it came to planning, such as that seen in the decision to give the go-ahead to High Speed 2. Mr Bensted said that if a project proves beneficial to a wider community, and is of the right scale, then a NIMBYism approach should not take priority.
Mr Bensted said that getting planning permission for waste treatment facilities was often difficult and that the issue needed to be overcome if the waste infrastructure is going to be developed further.
The ability to deliver on projects is very much a planning issue, he said.
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