A new initiative aimed at getting businesses views on how to make waste regulation simpler and clearer has been launched by the government today (September 1).
The drive is part of the Red Tape Challenge, which was originally launched in April 2011 with the aim of finding out whether existing regulations are working as intended, or should be scrapped.
It also aims to look at alternatives to traditional regulation, such as voluntary responsibility deals, which can reduce the administrative burden on business without damaging the environment.
Over the next three weeks, the focus on environmental regulations means rules governing everything from producer responsibility for packaging waste through to the permitting regime are under the spotlight. In total, 40 waste-specific regulations are involved, as well as the permitting system.
The call for businesses to take submit their views online is being led by Robert Hunt, executive director at Veolia Environmental Services, who has been designated as sector champion for the environment theme by the Cabinet Office.
Speaking to letrsrecycle.com about the initiative, Mr Hunt said: Its a mixture of things. Its about making regulation simpler and clearer but also thinking outside the box and achieving things through different means.
Giving an example of the latter approach, he pointed to the waste sector responsibility deal, which was launched in June 2011.
Waste regulation
Mr Hunt stressed, however, that the Red Tape Challenge wasnt about just swiping away waste regulation. Theres been quite a lot of reaction from people saying well destroy the environment, but no-ones saying the environment wont be regarded as a priority, he said.
He said that work was already ongoing to address the issue of red tape affecting the waste industry, giving the example of work to co-ordinate the permitting and planning regimes.
The permitting regime, which is quite proper to ensure we run facilities properly, and the planning regime theres a real confusion between those two, he said.
Whats happening is were talking to the big planning authorities and the Environment Agency with a view to getting a protocol agreed so each one of them knows what their roles are.
The government has also highlighted its recent removal of requirements for packaging waste reprocessors to produce independent audit reports, which it claims has saved them 300,000 a year.
Change on the ground
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And, in light of this, Mr Hunt said he was confident that suggestions and comments made by businesses over the next three weeks would lead to actual change on the ground.
I think there will be some very real deliverables coming out of this, he said. Its a starting point to say we want to see things different but it isnt going to sweep everything away. But what I think it will be doing is approaching a lot of quite different regulations in a new way.
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