16th August 2013
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
12th August 2013
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
6th August 2013
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
23rd July 2013
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.
15th July 2013
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,
25th June 2013
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
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
21st May 2013
It’s not difficult to make the case to reduce, reuse and recycle waste – a point made by the Labour Party in the Resource Security* Policy Review, released on Friday 19 April 2013. It’s also not difficult to understand that recovering the maximum amount of energy from the waste left over is an obvious thing to do. However, neither point
7th May 2013
One of the world’s most endangered insect species, the Tansy Beetle, has been given a helping hand along the road to survival by a grant of £25,000 from SITA Trust. This project is run by Buglife, as part of the national B-Lines initiative, which aims to address the loss of wildflower-rich grasslands, to benefit bumblebees, butterflies and moths and in
