The performance indictors which cover waste minimisation, pollution, transport and regulatory compliance have been developed by environmental charity the Green Alliance and are supported by waste management companies including Biffa, Cleanaway, Cory Environmental, Grundon, Shanks, SITA, Viridor and Waste Recycling Group.
The guidelines have also been endorsed by the Environmental Services Association, the Institute of Wastes Management, Waste Watch and Friends of the Earth. It is hoped that the indicators, which have been produced following three years work, will lead to improved reporting and will lead to improved performance in the waste industry.
Mr Meacher said that he was very happy to endorse the guidelines and that industry needed to measure environmental performance to improve. He also launched the government's environmental reporting guidelines.
Discussion at the launch centred around yesterday's Waste Summit and Mr Meacher emphasised that there was no excuse for councils not to hit targets and reiterated the need for everyone to minimise the amount of waste they produce. “Councils will almost certainly have to being in kerbside recycling to meet targets,” he said.
Mr Meacher said that he was confident that the money was being made available to enable councils to hit targets with the 140 million for recycling, 50 million New Opportunities Funding as well as the 2.2 million PFI funding. Mr Meacher also emphasised the 1.1 billion for “environment and culture” of which he said a large percentage would be directed towards the environment.
Mr Meacher said: “I think a good deal is working [with waste policy] but there are a couple of areas not working and we need to find out what isn't working, which is what the PIU study will do.”
But Barbara Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said that there needs to be more financial help to meet recycling targets. She said: “I am quite hopeful that the PIU study, which will be carried out break neck speed will assess what needs to be done, but the economic framework is the real issue with waste management and this needs to be looked at. We've lived with cheap waste disposal for to long, the money will come from rate payers.”
There are 27 core indicators which will help waste companies produce environmental reports including:
- tonnes of waste transported by rail or waste as a proportion of total waste transported
- relative amounts of materials recovered from the waste stream as a proportion of total waste handled
- number of integrated contracts that include waste minimisation and/or resources management services
- number of partnerships with local authorities, business and the voluntary sector on resource management
For the full list of indicators visit the
Green Alliance website.
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