The ambitious targets set out by Environment Secretary Hillary Benn recently are to be warmly welcomed, in particular the one requiring local authorities to offer a full collection service for all recyclable items by 2020. But setting targets and actually meeting them are, of course, two rather different things, particularly when public co-operation is fundamental to success.
John Barton is director a Renew, an organisation that which Renew provides strategic support to organisations looking to maximise the economic opportunities and carbon reductions achievable from the application of low carbon energy and environmental technologies.
Draconian fines might work in the short term, but ultimately they erode public goodwill. Severe punishments ultimately lead to resentment and a lower standard of co-operation.
Instead why not firstly educate people why recycling is important and then reward those who help release value from their waste? This is far more likely to convince people to make a real effort than reading a report of another disproportionate fine.
One way to achieve this could be to offer council tax rebates to recyclers. Alternatively, supermarket loyalty-card type schemes could be a template, offering a foretaste of a future where individuals manage their own carbon allowances.
More broadly, the prospect of more recycling has to be a positive one. The public need to see real projects being set up in the Region actually delivering real value from waste, for example recycled plastics being transformed into useful end products, or residual waste being turned into transport fuels.
A full recycling service does not, for example, mean half-a-dozen bins cluttering every driveway as some reports have suggested. Newcastle's Supacycle has developed a single container which can do the job on its own.
And a new £50m steam autoclaving facility set up by Graphite Resources on the banks of the River Tyne shows how a recycling centre can be safe, efficient and sensitive to the surrounding local community.
Councils need to build on people's evident goodwill, as opposed to unintentionally undermining it through a lack of vision, in the context of local waste management policies – their chances of long-term success appear to be limited in this regard
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