Waste Review to feature ‘important’ prevention plan

Neil Thornton, director of climate change, waste and atmosphere at Defra, told a Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum event today (June 9) that he was limited on what he could say about the review because it was due to be published “imminently”.

But, as the revised Waste Framework Directiverequires member states to develop waste prevention programmes, he said this was something he could confirm would be covered in the review.

There is a commitment to have a waste prevention plan and I can give you a sneak preview of the waste review in that it will have a waste prevention plan, he said.

This [waste prevention programme] is going to be very important. We need to put a lot of strength and importance behind that.

Mr Thornton also pointed to the target under the revised Waste Framework Directive to recycle 50% of household waste by 2020 and to the new legally-binding waste hierarchy – which also has waste prevention at its heart.

Other themes of the review, Mr Thornton explained, included a recognition of looking at waste in the round and not just focusing on household waste and ensuring that SMEs had access to services which enabled them to participate in a resource efficient economy. He said: That is something…the government are very keen to help on.

Overall, he said that the aspiration for waste is for it to be treated as a resource, something aspirational around a zero waste society.

However, he stressed that the Waste Policy Review would just be the first step, noting that most policies are not made by us at Defra but by the marketplace.

He added: Although we will be giving you very soon a constructive set of renewed policies from this government that is not the end of the story there will be all sorts of areas of travel, areas where we need to develop this or that. There is going to be a lot of engagement with all of you in the follow up to the waste review.

BRC

Also at the event, Bob Gordon, head of environment at the British Retail Consortium, called for leadership from the government in the review.

He said: I think we need to see not just a vision but we need a strategy, level of ambition and policy without these things it can be an empty promise.

Mr Gordon pointed to strategies in Wales and Scotland which set out ambitious targets and policies to divert waste away from landfill. However, he suggested that it would be really challenging for ministers in England to put similar policies in place because they were constrained by funding cuts and their commitment to localism.

He said: There are some specific things we would like the policy review to cover. It would be good to see the landfill tax escalator extended beyond 2014 and support for SMEs.

On the issue of collection, Mr Gordon criticised suggestions in the national media that the government may help councils return to weekly collections, by pointing out that this led to more waste and less recycling.

You would be incentivising something that puts you at odds with what we are aiming to achieve in the waste review which is reducing waste, he said.