Menu

Tag: Government

Missing opportunities

3rd December 2013 Posted by

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

Waste crime

16th October 2013 Posted by

Earlier this week the Environment Agency issued a report on waste crime (‘Cracking Down on Waste Crime. Waste Crime Report 2012-2013‘). The report acknowledged that while there has been an increase in the crackdown on illegal waste management activity, crime is a significant issue in our sector. It is difficult to appreciate the localised impact of that crime, in the

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

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

Illegal dumping of refuse derived fuel

31st May 2013 Posted by

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

Email Share Social Share
LinkedIn
Facebook
Back to Top