6th May 2014
Demographic changes in the UK have occurred not just in the general population, but also in the business population. These changes make interesting reading in terms of the future prospects for waste and resource management. Latest figures published by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills in October 2013 estimated that there were 4.9 million private sector businesses in the
19th March 2014
The recent Resource event at ExCel in London – Realising the Opportunities of a Circular Economy – could not have been better timed. Nobody now questions the benefits that a circular economy can bring, in terms of saving businesses money, and for the wider environmental benefits from using our natural resources more efficiently. As a concept, we can safely say
11th February 2014
The UK has had a penchant for over-complicating environmental legislation. The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (scrapped in 2013), the Carbon Reduction Commitment (supposedly simplified in 2012) and most notoriously, the Electricity Market Reform legislative package – described by one commentator as “a scheme which is liable to disintegrate under the weight of its own complexity” – spring to mind. The
5th February 2014
I recently had the pleasure of taking part in a debate about re-use, as a panellist at an industry event in London. The people and discussions were fascinating and inspirational, but what really intrigued me was the aspiration, complexity and also the terminology used to describe various re-use activities. Currently there are many relatively small schemes seeking to make use
14th January 2014
Two years ago, SITA UK published a document called ‘Driving Green Growth’ , which aimed to help Government understand the potential of the waste and resource recovery industry. We listed the potential opportunities, which included: Investment of £20-£25 billion 84,000 direct and indirect new jobs Millions of tonnes of resources recovered and reinserted into the economy A 10 per cent
9th January 2014
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
11th December 2013
We are just emerging from one of the hardest and longest recessions in living memory. Thankfully, the economy is looking far healthier than it did a year ago, with construction activities picking up and manufacturing starting on the road to recovery. This last point was made clear to me recently at the Manufacturer Directors’ Conference in Birmingham, where I experienced
3rd December 2013
The waste-to-resource sector is one of the most active, rapidly growing and capital-intensive sectors in the UK at this time. Our sector has a value in excess of £12 billion and directly employs well over 100,000 people. It reportedly grew at a rate of 3.1 per cent this year and is expected to grow by more than four per cent next
28th October 2013
Energy policy and practice has a lot in common with the waste hierarchy, where minimisation is the first thing to look at. If we all want to keep our fuel bills down, we should try to reduce what we use and then find more sustainable ways of using the energy we need. Making more sustainable energy is a good goal
21st October 2013
Tesco gave some challenging insight to food waste in their report “Tesco and Society: Using our Scale for Good” issued today. Nearly 30,000 tonnes of waste food from the supply chain, store and customer is a big target to work towards, but by my calculations this amounts to around 25kg per Tesco store per day or assuming Tesco’s 30 per
