UK must send loud signal on resource efficiency

The UK needs a long, loud legal signal to ensure resource efficiency targets are met in the years to come, speakers at an All Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG) meeting agreed yesterday (May 15).

Chaired by Dan Byles MP, the Policy Levers for Resource Efficiency event in Westminster focused on how government could work towards and define a resource efficiency target which is expected to be announced as part of a circular economy package by the EU Commission next month (see letsrecycle.com story).

Predictions made for the package include a resource efficiency target of 30%, a municipal waste recycling target of between 70-80% and a landfill ban by 2025.

Speaking at the Policy Levers for Resource Efficiency event at Portcullis House in London, Matthew Spencer of the Green Alliance argued that progress would most probably be made through a series of partial solutions, but that the onus to meet potential resource efficiency targets lay with public institution bodies as well as businesses.

He said: We have seen a decline in the rate of recycling as a whole in the UK as a result of having no resource efficiency targets. I think we could see a lot more activity from our best public institutions including local authorities. They are very much limited by their boundaries and they are not thinking about the new materials that are starting to emerge. For instance, we are still throwing away an estimated 500 million of food waste each year.

I am confident any government of any party would be more open to some of the ideas presented here once we see an end to the economic downturn.

Mr Spencers views were mirrored by independent expert and Policy Connect board member Peter Jones, who called the government the biggest waste company and the one that should be in the driving seat.

Cautious

And, Institute of European Environmental Policy (IEEP) director David Baldock was equally optimistic that resource efficiency targets could be achieved if the UK government was willing to cooperate. But, he warned an unwillingness to work with the EU could see the Commission become cautious and shelve the package.

He said: The European Commission is really determined to push resource efficiency as we are expecting the creation of a new target rather late in the day under [environment commissioner] Potocniks administration.

The UK could embrace the new targets and maintain compliance with them. This could be achieved through landfill bans or separate collection of bio-waste, revisiting labelling of waste or looking at the way the treatment of waste food is incorporated into the energy supply sector. There are different measures we could put forward if we wanted to meet an ambitious target.

But, others will say we dont want these EU targets, and we have a Commission that is already quite cautious right now. In this case, resource efficiency and recycling could end up disappearing down the agenda.

Defra

Speaking for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Dr Colin Church who said he could not answer any questions during the purdah or pre-election period – said the UK government supported better use of materials that could produce a lot of potential benefits.

He went on to suggest that the budget considerations faced by the government were perhaps larger than that of the wider economy, but that it would continue to fund resource efficiency through organisations such as the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

But, speaking from the floor, Viridor external affairs director Dan Cooke said: It is early days and its not all doom and gloom – businesses are already making good progress on driving resource efficiency. However, I do think the government has been very slow in addressing more pressing concerns for the waste industry such as waste fires and the number of insurers that are threatening to pull out.