Whatever next? SD-scene newsletter June/July 2007 feature
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Tackling waste together

The new Waste Strategy is a vision for sustainable waste management in England, which calls on businesses, councils and households to work together to hit tough new targets. Here, we look at how the Government sees us meeting this challenge.

In the main feature:

• A revolution in waste
• Helping households
• Tackling the source
  

A revolution in waste

Less waste, more re-use and recycling, more energy from waste and less landfill. These are the key objectives of the recently announced Waste Strategy for England, the Government’s new vision for sustainable waste management.

Launched in May, the Waste Strategy sets new targets to stress waste reduction, higher targets for waste recycling and composting than ever before as well as tough targets on the amount of rubbish we send to landfill. By 2010, 40 per cent of household waste in the UK should be recycled or composted, rising to 50 per cent by 2020. Currently, we recycle 27 per cent of our waste, up from seven per cent in 1997 but still below the European average. Besides the damage this does to our reputation as a nation, there are a great many practical environmental reasons for improving waste management in the UK.

Reuse and recycling both reduce waste and save energy. According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) - the not-for-profit company backed by the Government to promote resource efficiency - recycling currently saves between 10-15m tonnes of greenhouse gases a year compared to other approaches to waste management. This is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the emissions produced by UK households and has the same effect as taking 3.5m cars off the road.

We also need to help tackle climate change by sending less waste to landfill. As well as wasting materials that could be recycled when biodegradable waste is buried in landfill, it rots down and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas (currently accounting for over 3 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions). In some areas we are also running out of space.

Better waste management also presents opportunities for the country. For example, biodegradable waste that is separated by households and collected by councils can be used to create both heat and electricity. According to one piece of research, in a single year the contents of the average dustbin contain enough energy to heat 3,500 showers or keep a TV on for 5,000 hours. The new waste strategy aims to harness more of this energy to tackle climate change.

Helping households

To encourage households to recycle more of their waste, the Government wants to give councils the power to introduce incentive schemes – there’s currently a ban on local authorities introducing financial incentives for recycling. Such schemes would see households that recycle rewarded at the expense of more wasteful residents. The Government wants to see councils given the opportunity to choose whether to opt for incentives and it has launched a consultation (to run until August 2007), alongside the Waste Strategy, on proposals to remove the ban.

With any schemes guaranteed to be revenue neutral, it seems that the majority of the public would also support incentives for recycling. According to a Local Government Association survey, two out of three people would back a "save-as-you-throw" approach. 

The strategy also paves the way for the separate collection of food waste so that councils could harness the gases from its decomposition. This could help increase the amount of energy generated by waste from a variety of technologies from 10 per cent to 25 per cent by 2020. It’s thought that households currently throw away around a third of the food they buy.

Tackling the source

Of course the best way to minimise waste is to prevent it at source. Government and business both recognise the role the commercial sector has to play in bringing this about. The waste strategy sets out a number of initiatives with the business community to reduce the amount of waste it produces.

Each year an estimated 6.3 million tonnes of packaging reaches British homes, costing the average British family £400 every year, a fact that consumers are increasingly wise to. As Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, says: "I think businesses genuinely realise it's no longer acceptable to have so much packaging. Consumers don't want it and they are responding to public pressure. Environmental issues have never been higher on the agenda."

The new Waste Strategy places greater responsibility on businesses for the environmental impact of their products and operations through, for example, a drive to minimise packaging and higher targets for recycling packaging. Specific measures include working with retailers for the end of free single use bags. This could involve retailers only selling long-life bags, or charging for disposable bags and using the proceeds to sell long-life bags at a discount.

Government has also agreed with the Direct Marketing Association to develop a service so that people will be able to opt out of receiving unaddressed as well as addressed direct mail. The Government is also considering moving towards an approach where people would only get direct mail if they opt in by placing their name on a direct mail register.

Other notable pledges in the strategy include a commitment by the Government to put pressure on the European commission to make it easier for members to take action against excessive packaging; placing recycling bins next to litter bins in public spaces, such as airports and parks; and help for charities and social enterprises to increase their collection and re-use of waste.