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Author: DrGevE

Guidance on weekly rubbish collections

9th January 2014 Posted by

Waste managers are likely to read the Department for Communities and Local Goverment’s (DCLG) recent Guidance on Weekly Rubbish Collections with, at best, a sense of disbelief. In my view, the response of professional and trade bodies to date has actually been mystifyingly polite. Firstly, the document doesn’t provide “guidance … on how councils can and should deliver weekly rubbish

Rochford District Council’s remarkable recycling rates

17th September 2013 Posted by

According to performance data collected by Letsrecycle.com (30 August 2013), Rochford District Council should anticipate top position in the English household waste recycling league for 2012/13 – a contract operated by SITA UK. The Council is expected to achieve a recycling and composting rate of 66.78 per cent, down from 67.4 per cent in 2011/12. Despite complaints from some quarters

Defra’s disappointing waste consultation

6th September 2013 Posted by

True to form, Defra has followed up a disappointing consultation on a waste management plan for England with an equally disappointing consultation document on a waste prevention programme for England. As with the former, the abiding impression is that of another tick-box exercise intended to meet the UK’s obligations under Article 29 of the European Union Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC.

Food and glass recycling

4th September 2013 Posted by

Of the materials that we discard in our bins every week, two in particular are of concern – food and glass. When landfilled, food waste decomposes to release greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. Defra’s delivery arm, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), runs programmes to reduce food waste (the Love Food Hate Waste campaign) and to divert

We always treat the green belt with respect

16th August 2013 Posted by

Despite the spin put on by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in his recent newspaper interview that proposed new rules in the updated planning policy paper Planning for sustainable waste management “will discourage the likes of incinerators and waste dumps on Green Belt land”, the reality is less dramatic. Leaving aside Mr Pickles’ deplorable choice of language in describing modern fully-engineered

A leasing society

12th August 2013 Posted by

Policymakers have been enthusing over the idea of a “leasing society” as one means of achieving a closed-loop economy. Consumers pay for a service as opposed to buying the product, the ownership of which remains with the manufacturer. The theory is that manufacturers would build better products if they retained responsibility for performance, consumers would benefit financially, and the environment

Scottish waste policy

6th August 2013 Posted by

Scotland is gearing up for the implementation of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 with a strong communications and awareness-raising drive. From 1 January 2014, local authorities and businesses will be required to comply with new legal duties relating to the separate collection of dry recyclables and of food waste, and further treatment of residual waste before it is sent for

The greenest Government ever?

23rd July 2013 Posted by

For a government that aspires to be the ‘greenest ever’, the recent unveiling of two documents – the Defra/BIS-supported circular economy taskforce report ‘Resource Resilient UK’ and Defra’s consultation on its ‘Waste Management Plan for England’ – has gone almost unnoticed. No fanfare, no trumpeting of the Government’s green credentials or of new initiatives to support green growth.

Is the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 living up to expectation?

15th July 2013 Posted by

In October 2012, SITA UK launched a report ‘Creating Social Value – the Role of the Waste and Resource Management Industry’. The report highlights the broader social benefits that the waste and resource management industry, in partnership with the third sector, could offer local authorities alongside the delivery of waste management services. The legal framework for procurement of these services,

Wealth from Waste

25th June 2013 Posted by

The Local Government Association’s report Wealth from Waste has been received positively by commentators in both the public and private sectors, an indication that we could be approaching convergence on the outlines of a strategy to power the circular economy. Broadly, they involve introducing “push” levers to get more waste out of landfill (though the Local Government Association’s report is somewhat

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