More focus on water as WRAP cuts communications

The Waste & Resources Action Programme will become heavily dependent on its partner organisations and on local authorities in the wake of budget cuts affecting its capital grant funding and communications campaigns, it was revealed yesterday (November 9).

 

We will have to reduce our spending in some areas and change the way that we do some things, I am sure we will need to make some significant changes

 
Dr Liz Goodwin, chief executive, WRAP 

At the organisation's annual conference in central London, WRAP set out its future ambitions and explained that budgetary constraints would see it forced to reduce its spending in some areas.

The exact areas are to be detailed in its forthcoming business plan for 2011-14, which will also reflect more attention on product design, business waste, water as well as food waste.

It had been anticipated that the delivery body, which escaped the so-called ‘bonfire of the quangos', would have its £91 million budget slashed in the wake of last month's Comprehensive Spending Review (see letsrecycle.com story).

Opening the event, Dr Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, said: “We will have to reduce our spending in some areas and change the way that we do some things, I am sure we will need to make some significant changes. But this will help to keep WRAP nimble.”

Dr Goodwin did not voice any concerns over spending reductions and said: “We are talking to Defra and our other funding institutions about our funding but I am absolutely certain we are going to have a lot to do going forward.”

And she remarked that funding was “only one small part” of WRAP's remit and that its “core skill” focussed on bringing parties together to work on sustainability issues.

Water is also to be an increasingly important area of WRAP's work, partly driven by its Envirowise side. A report launched yesterday by WRAP spoke of how water can be saved in the production process and in her address Dr Goodwin also highlighted how reducing food waste can reduce water extraction.

Communications

In a question and answer session, WRAP was probed on what impact the budget constraints would have on its communications. Dr Goodwin confirmed that it “would reduce our level of communication spend” and it would have to investigate “different ways of communicating”.

Nick Gammage, director of communications at WRAP, said that, while communications would remain “absolutely fundamental”, WRAP would have to change its focus.

He said: “Quite a lot of the heavyweight spending was about awareness and now there are high levels of awareness about the environmental benefits of recycling. And, when you are getting to 93%, it doesn't justify such a heavyweight spend.”

Future role

Overall, at the event, delegates felt that WRAP was still to reveal what exactly its future work would be.

One delegate told letsrecyle.com: “There is little mention of waste and recycling here today and most of the talk was about water.”

Another remarked: “It is clear that WRAP is having to toe the party line at Defra. I think the recycling days are over and they are going to be looking at water consumption when products are made.”

WRAP remained somewhat reticent on what the forthcoming business plan will focus on, however much of its work is expected to be more “product based”, with the organisation looking further up the supply chain to work with manufacturers and reduce waste in the first instance.