A regional think tank backed by the BNFL, United Utilities, Co-operative Bank, the Environment Agency and the Northwest Development Agency, Sustainability Northwest has issued a manifesto entitled Sustainable Governance in England's Northwest.
The organisation warned that “we will be drowning in a sea of waste by 2020” unless a “visionary regional waste strategy” is produced to counter “confusion over disposal policies and the public's recycling apathy”.
The region generated over four million tonnes of household waste in 2003, recycling on average just 11% of it. The volume of waste created by the north west is set to grow to seven million tonnes by 2020 according to government predictions, Sustainability Northwest said.
Sustainability Northwest's manifesto called for a “single, powerful and region-wide waste body” to break down administrative barriers and create new markets for recyclable materials.
Erik Bichard, leader of Sustainability Northwest and non-executive director of Greater Manchester Waste, said: “The confusion in policy, the lack of decent waste data and a poor governance structure is leading to a situation in which we just can't handle our waste.
“This manifesto on sustainable governance proposes a single, powerful and region-wide waste body with the remit to simplify waste collection, create new recycling companies and stimulate markets to buy products made from recyclable materials,” he added.
According to the report, it will be possible to create community-scale recycling and re-manufacturing plants if the production of waste is “effectively managed and directed on a regional proximity scale”.
Mr Bichard said he could foresee people in the north west “insulating homes with old wine bottles, wearing clothes that were once plastic drinks cartons and growing crops on yesterday's newspapers in a reuse, reprocess society”.
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