The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has released the results of their enquiry into the Government’s Waste Strategy for England 2007.
EFRA’s verdict: Defra’s Waste Strategy has left England’s waste mountain with no clear targets for its reduction, and leaves 90% of waste without specific recycling targets. Government knowledge of commercial and industrial recycling rates is patchy and outdated. Instead, Defra’s Waste Strategy concentrates its efforts on achieving improved recycling rates in the domestic sector which accounts for only 10% of England’s waste.
In their detailed review of England’s Waste Strategy, to which the NFU made a detailed submission on issues of farm waste, fly-tipping, composting and anaerobic digestion, MPs from the committee call on the Government to:
• Re-evaluate the impact of cuts in funding for business resource efficiency programmes, such as those run by the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP);
• Require all retailers with a turn-over greater than £50 million to publish details of their waste prevention strategies and recycling performance;
• Require food retailers and manufacturers to report, at least annually, on how much food waste they produce;
• Set a target for mandatory collection of food waste, learning lessons from those authorities which already collect such refuse for beneficial use such as in anaerobic digestion plant, and ensure continued provision of advice, education and practical support, for example through reduced cost composting equipment.
To improve the regulatory regime the committee also call on ministers to:
• Increase the funding provided for the enforcement of waste regulation;
• Encourage greater re-use or recycling of wastes by raising the thresholds for inclusion in the Environmental Permitting regime, particularly in the metals sector;
• Re-examine the case for imposing lower levels of duty on waste-derived fuel oil;
• Ensure that local authorities are using their available powers fully to discharge their responsibilities to prevent fly-tipping and littering;
• Remove impediments to full intelligence sharing between the Environment Agency and other enforcement agencies to enable improved targeting of illegal waste export;
The two volumes of reports can be downloaded from the UK Parliament website
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