Archived press release

Government waste strategy is missed opportunity

14 February 2006

Friends of the Earth labelled the Government's revised waste strategy a missed opportunity on the day Ben Bradshaw, Minister for the Environment, launched a three-month consultation on waste plans.

Friends of the Earth Waste and Resource Use Campaigner, Anna Watson said:

"The Government's waste strategy misses an opportunity to tackle England's waste crisis. It gives the green light for increased incineration and reveals limited ambition for recycling. England could recycle or compost 75 per cent of its household waste by 2015. This would drastically reduce the need for incineration in England."

Friends of the Earth key concerns include:

Energy from Waste plants - or incinerators - form a key part of the Government's waste strategy. Incinerators burn valuable resources which would be better re-used, recycled or composted. They are not a form of renewable energy as they burn a range of materials including plastics and are incredibly inefficient energy producers. Friends of the Earth today highlighted proposals for 22 new municipal waste incinerators in England - which would more then double the current number.
There is no target for waste prevention - the Government predicts that the amount of waste we produce will rise by between 0.75 per cent and 2.25 per cent year on year. This means we could be producing as much as 41.6 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2020. Yet the Government's waste strategy contains no clear plans for dealing with this increase.
The Government's target for 50 per cent of household waste to be recycled by 2020 lacks ambition. In 15 years England's recycling rates will only have just reached the levels that some European countries reached five years ago.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to implement a three-step plan to deal with Britain's waste crisis:

Reduce the amount of waste generated: the Government needs to set an ambitious waste prevention target and adopt policies to ensure that it is met.
Redesign: The Government should put regulatory and financial pressure on manufacturers and retailers to ensure that they design-out waste from their products, or make them recyclable or compostable if prevention is not possible.
Recycle and compost at least 75 per cent of UK waste: the UK currently recycles just under 20 per cent of its domestic waste; one of the worst rates in Europe

Such measures would drastically cut the amount of waste produced. Any remaining waste could be further processed before land-filling, to reduce its volume and avoid greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites.

For further information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

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Archived press release

Government waste strategy is missed opportunity

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