20th June 2013
Recent reports in the trade press of the difficulties experienced by plastics recycling facilities in England and Wales should come as a warning to policy-makers who base their waste management strategies on ever-higher materials recycling targets, while at the same time placing a ceiling on the percentage of waste sent to energy recovery. A successful recycling-based strategy requires all elements
31st May 2013
The rising incidence of illegal dumping and inappropriate storage of refuse derived fuel (RDF) in England has caught our regulatory and control systems on the hop. When landfilling dominated our waste management system, Government toughened-up its regulatory and inspection regime. This involved a duty being improsed on landfill operators to put forward financial provisions (renewable bonds, cash deposits and the
30th April 2013
The Welsh Government has opened a consultation on proposed changes to its national planning policy for the management of waste. The three Welsh Regional Waste Plans have been around for less than 10 years, with the latest revisions dating from as recently as 2008, and serious infrastructure is already being tendered against these Plans. In view of this, the claim
17th April 2013
April 2013 opens a new chapter in the UK’s efforts to divert waste from landfill, with the end of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS). The Scheme was introduced in 2005 and, in design, paralleled the market-based compliance scheme that applies to packaging waste – the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) system. Schemes of this sort suited the UK’s “just enough
9th April 2013
The latest addition to the growing literature on the circular economy (Closing the loop: risk or reward?) offers a timely reminder that the waste management industry needs to respond to the fast-changing business environment in which it operates, if it is to retain its relevance. Thus far, the report suggests the industry has not fully grasped the seismic shift within
5th April 2013
With the announcement in the Chancellor’s Spring budget that the landfill tax escalator will remain unchanged at £8 per year, landfill tax will reach the Government’s ceiling of £80 per tonne of waste in 2014/15. No surprise here, though the lack of an announcement on the future level of the tax after 2014/15 comes as a disappointment. The Local Government
12th March 2013
Listening to the recent panel response on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions, elicited a ray of hope that the public discussion surrounding energy-from-waste is becoming more sophisticated. The question was asked as to whether the proposed waste incinerator at Javelin Park in Gloucestershire was “a blot on the landscape or a necessary step towards an ecologically sustainable environment”. The panel
1st March 2013
The announcement that exports from the UK of refuse derived fuel (RDF) – fuel made from residual municipal and commercial waste – rose sharply in 2012 to 892,000 tonnes is no surprise to the waste management industry. For almost two decades the sector has fought for recognition by policymakers of the huge contribution energy-from-waste (EfW) can make towards meeting the
22nd February 2013
Waste-watchers in the UK would do well to keep a weather eye on policy developments at the European Commission. 2013 marks the review of targets contained in a Directive that has single-handedly changed the face of waste management in the UK – the Landfill Directive. The UK was unprepared for the Directive when it came into force in 2002, scrambling
18th February 2013
Following a House of Lords debate on 12 February, Defra announced that the Government in England would introduce a ban on food waste into landfill only if the measure was “affordable” to businesses. Meanwhile, Scotland has introduced a landfill ban on food waste through the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012. Wales, while not formally instituting a landfill ban, are nevertheless well
