Archived press release

Call for radical change to waste policy

14 June 2005

A coalition of environmental groups has today published a 15 point plan for a radical transformation to England's waste policy [1]. Publication of the plan coincides with a conference this week (14^th-17^th June), where the Government will reveal the results of its stakeholder consultation on the current review of its national waste strategy [2].

The coalition, which includes Friends of the Earth, Green Alliance, Women's Environmental Network, Waste Watch, Community Recycling Network, Community Composting Network and Furniture Reuse Network, is calling for measures that need to be addressed to enable England to move from simply dealing with waste to managing our material resources sustainably. The measures called for include:

• Higher national recycling targets and setting further statutory recycling targets for local authorities. Targets that were set in the Waste Strategy 2000 have provided the momentum for improving collection infrastructure and driving up recycling rates over the last few years. This improvement must continue as our performance still falls far short of the best countries for recycling in Europe;

• Waste prevention targets for local authorities, with supporting funding and advice from central Government. England must tackle the increasing amount of waste being produced to ensure that improvements in recycling aren't outstripped by growing amounts of waste. Waste prevention is the best environmental option for dealing with our waste yet there are few policy measures currently in place to ensure that we do this in practice;

• Giving councils the power to implement financial incentive or charging schemes for householders to encourage people to reduce their waste and reuse, recycle and compost more. Charging schemes have been implemented in the best performing European countries with positive results.

Friends of the Earth's recycling campaigner Georgina Bloomfield said:

"Radical changes to England's waste policy must take place if we are to dramatically improve the way we deal with our waste and manage our resources more sustainably. The current waste review is a golden opportunity to reassess the future of resources management in this country. We have outlined today an ideal model for dealing with waste, but we need the right legislative and economic framework to be in place to ensure that this vision becomes a reality."

Friends of the Earth also called on the Government earlier this year to set more ambitious recycling targets for 2010 (currently 30 per cent), and 2015 (currently 33 per cent), along with releasing a new report Target Recycling[3] outlining why we believe that higher national targets and further local authority targets are needed. Target Recycling also outlines measures that the Government must introduce to tackle our current throwaway culture and match the best recycling levels in Europe.

England currently recycles 17 per cent of its domestic waste.

Notes

[1] From waste to resource: a new strategy for 2005 (PDF), an NGO statement on the policy measures the Government needs to consider as part of the Waste Strategy 2000 review.

[2] The Chartered Institution for Wastes Management is holding their Raising the standard conference from 14^th-17^th June 2005 in Paignton, Torbay.

[3] Target recycling (PDF)

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust