Members of the waste and resources industry have welcomed the recommendations of the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee’s report into waste management in England.

Launched today (22 October), the ‘Waste management in England’ report warns that England will not ‘play its role in meeting the European requirement for the United Kingdom to recycle at least 50 per cent of its household waste by 2020 without significant government intervention’.

As such, it calls on the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to ‘actively reassure interested parties that waste policy remains a priority’ and recommends a range of actions government could take to boost recycling rates.

Industry reaction

The report and its recommendations have been welcomed by many in the industry, with Ray Georgeson, Chief Executive of the Resource Association saying: "We congratulate the EFRA Committee on a strong analysis and clear recommendations that we support. We note in particular that the committee has asked Defra to reconsider statutory recycling targets for local authorities – this is an important recommendation and reflects the urgency with which the achievement of 2020 recycling targets needs to be addressed afresh."

SITA UK Chief Executive Officer and Environmental Services Association (ESA) Chairman David Palmer-Jones said it was “gratifying” that the report supported the waste sector’s belief that Defra's intention to "step back" from waste policy work was “ill-conceived and premature” and that England could miss the 50 per cent recycling target by 2020.

He welcomed the report’s recommendations, stating: “Key among these are the need to harmonise waste collection and recycling systems, particularly with respect to food waste, the re-imposition of recycling targets for all local authorities alongside financial support to meet them, and driving recyclable materials out of landfill in order for the UK to reach 70 per cent recycling by 2030 regardless of whether formal targets are in place.

“Above all, the inquiry agrees with our sector that Defra's lack of ambition and drive will hinder England's ability to unlock the significant economic and social benefits that greater resource efficiency can deliver. As such, both as Chief Executive of SITA UK and as Chairman of the ESA, I welcome the report's recommendations and hope that they provide the catalyst we need for government to re-engage with our sector."

End destinations

Welcoming the committee’s recommendation that more should be done to educate the public on recycling and where recycling goes, Georgeson added: "Our End Destination of Recycling Charter has played a role, but we wholeheartedly welcome the committee's recommendation that statutory reporting of end destination is required.

“At the very least, we invite Defra ministers to echo the response of officials in their evidence by extending greater public support to the End Destination Charter, and we extend an open invitation to Dan Rogerson to meet with us and charter signatories to explore ways of extending the reach of the charter."

The Chief Executive of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Steve Lee, also welcomed EFRA's report, but said it could have gone further.

He said: "[T]he report is still focused on the ‘here and now’ situation; it stops short of articulating the step change in policy approach that will be needed from Defra and other government departments in the future, not least in light of the higher recycling and landfill diversion targets currently on the European Commission’s agenda.

"We need a proper strategy for waste and resources, a clear policy framework to deliver greater waste prevention, improved recycling and better infrastructure provision for both municipal and commercial waste, and a roadmap that fully exploits the synergies between our sector and the wider energy, resource security and sustainable economic growth agendas.

"For this report to have its fullest impact, we would like to see the Select Committee using this opportunity, and future inquiries, to drive home the potential future impact and cost of Defra’s ‘back seat’ stance on waste.”

Others in the industry welcomed calls to further boost consumer engagement with recycling. Jane Bevis, Chair of the On-Pack Recycling Label Limited – a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Retail Consortium, under licence from WRAP – said: “We completely endorse the select committee’s conclusions on the need to give consumers clear guidance on recycling, and to reinforce that advice again and again. The On-Pack Recycling Label does just that, providing detailed information on each element of packaging so that consumers know whether to put it in the recycling bin or out with the waste…

“The more companies that join in this private-sector initiative and the more local authorities that back it, the more effective any Defra-funded national communications will be.”

Infrastructure investment

Touching on EFRA’s warning that Defra should ensure that waste sent to energy-from-waste plants such as incinerators is only ‘genuinely residual waste’ (and not recyclable waste), Shlomo Dowen, National Coordinator of the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), said: "I commend the report's calls for maximising recycling, its recognition that put-or-pay clauses in incinerator contracts can undermine incentives to recycle, and the committee's recommendation that there should be a moratorium on the incineration of recyclable waste.”

UKWIN also welcomed the recommendation for a minister to provide a consistent approach to waste management, stating its hope that it would “bring an end to harmful incinerator subsidies and an end to the baffling investments from the Green Investment Bank in incinerator projects that are far from green”.

Also reacting to the committee’s recommendation that Defra analyse how much waste infrastructure capacity is actually needed in England to ‘gain an optimal balance between export and local treatment’, Jacob Hayler, Economist at the ESA, said (in contrast to Dowen): “[W]e shouldn't overlook the need to invest in more domestic energy recovery jobs and infrastructure. Far too much waste still goes either to landfill or overseas. We should be exploiting this valuable energy resource to light and heat our homes and businesses."

Jeremy Jacobs, Technical Director of the Renewable Energy Association (REA), agreed with Hayler’s reaction, but added that he disagreed with EFRA’s statement that there’s no role for purpose-grown crops in anaerobic digestion, stating: “What we do need to do is find an economically and environmentally sustainable balance between crops and wastes – and that needs government leadership.”

Find out more about EFRA’s ‘Waste management in England’ report.