Money in the Recycling Bank – Where's the Beef in the Waste Policy Review

Many were pinning hopes on the present coalition government supporting the burgeoning resources management and waste sector – after all, this business area has 100,000 people working in it according to its own figures and performs a vital role in diverting waste away from landfill preventing it from breaking down and adding to greenhouse gas emissions with Methane, or gradually disintegrating with deposits either entering the food chain or water courses, or, with inert materials, bulking out valuable space when much of the time the resource could be reused.

Added to this, David Cameron stated in May 2010 that he had ambitions to head the ‘greenest government ever’ when he addressed a meeting at the Department of Energy and Climate Change during the 10:10 campaign to reduce emissions by 10% in 2010 (which it did, actually reducing emissions by 13.5% that year).

However, the publication ‘Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011’ disappointed the sector and proponents of the environmental agenda across the UK. Only the CBI offered general support of the government’s focus on harnessing waste as a resource, pointing out that it is a “much wider issue than household bin collections”. It would seem that although the government wants to be seen as ‘Green’, the complexity of the matter has stopped it making any true progress. It knows ‘there is no silver bullet to solve the waste issue’ (as Environmental Secretary, Caroline Spelman, states in the policy foreword) so what the government really wants is to get businesses, charities, voluntary groups and other civil society groups to deal with waste, while it gets the fiscal debt under control.

Indeed it would appear to be a reasonable standpoint because, as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Environment Minister Lord Henley pointed out at a recent meeting; ‘Twice as much waste comes from commerce and industry than householders’, meaning businesses are firmly in the sights of government when it comes to dealing with the waste problem. In short, the government is saying – we’ve got our hands full; what are you doing about your bit?

The government’s review highlights some particular sectors where it would like to see businesses picking up the mantle: hospitality, textiles (including the supply chain for retail) and construction, but overall it wants a general change of attitude to waste and resource management.

The review’s main point then is this: Waste prevention is key to reducing the waste problem and it wants everyone to repeat the mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Dispose. This waste hierarchy can be considered best practice for resource and waste management; supported by many in the environmental sector, from WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Plan) down.

The Waste Policy Review also points out that there is a great deal of confusion over what is law, what is best practice and what is practical when it comes to dealing with waste. Added to which it highlights the previous government’s move to criminalising the disposal of waste if done incorrectly, something that the Coalition believes is often disproportionate to the crime. It is likely that there will be a move away from criminal to civil penalties for transgressors, but with businesses signing up to Voluntary Responsibility Deals (more on this later) there should be no need for new regulations on waste during this government’s office. So out goes the idea of ‘bin snooping’ and taxation if you don’t recycle and in comes the ‘harm to local amenities test’ (Although details are a little vague at the moment on how this is measured.) and the targeting of persistent offenders such as people that fly tip or illegally take in waste onto land without proper licences.

Taking this on board, the government is pushing for ‘life-cycling thinking’ – resource efficient product design and manufacture as well as targeting high carbon impact waste streams such as food, metals, plastics and textiles. It plans to reward innovative initiators for businesses wanting to do the right thing (i.e to follow the code)

So what does this mean for businesses in facilities management, office managers reading this will be asking?

As you would expect from a largely Conservative government, a reduction in red tape and legislation which will make it easier for you to do ‘the right thing’. The most interesting element of the policy is that there is more expectation for local authorities to help local businesses meet waste management responsibilities and to recycle more.

Under the previous administration, local authorities prevented business from disposing of their waste or recycling in household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) – even though these were clearly the most well run facilities and able to dispose of a greater range of waste arisings. This was because of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme that local authorities are measured on, allowing the trade of biodegradable waste between authorities. (business waste essentially skewed the figures making it harder to trade spare capacity). The LATS is being scrapped from 2012/2013, effectively removing a barrier for business recycling at a local level. You will still have to work within the legal framework that lays out what can and cannot be disposed of, or how to dispose of types of waste, but the upshot of this move should mean lower disposal costs for smaller businesses (because you can take your waste to the HWRC rather than have it collected).

Another barrier to recycling is seen as the confusing array of legal requirements for different types of waste. Although the framework remains, training and advice will be readily available from the Environment Agency, WRAP and via schemes run by local authorities, delivered by experts in the field.

The other major idea in the review is the Voluntary Responsibility Deal, which is hoped will raise awareness of waste prevention and sustainable waste management, as well as helping businesses explore ways of increasing the take up of recycling services. The heart of the Deal is educating businesses in designing out waste from the start of a project – either through better design, or processes. Using the reduce, reuse, recycle guide, a new code of practice will be jointly developed between Defra and private enterprise. Defra is also carrying out early research on how the code is working in the real world and from its findings, it will decide if the code of practice will become mandatory.

Most of this new code relates to waste sorting by local authorities, but this is very likely to percolate down to businesses too: Waste sorting prior to recycling is a simple method of getting the best prices for materials, so the incentive for all businesses is to carry out sorting on site and hopefully, reduce the costs for removal and disposal.

One other element contained in the review is getting paid for your business recycling. WRAP is currently looking at this option for businesses that manage retail or business parks, shopping centres or operate cash and carry retail operations. Tesco has already committed to taking full responsibility for municipal recycling banks it houses on its sites and car parks. It has worked out that the sorted waste it controls is a revenue stream with a low overhead. You could say they are the only UK banks that are providing money for business.

Generally, business does pretty well with recycling. Defra’s 2010 survey shows that recycling rates are around 52% from industry and commerce compared to the 2002/3 figures of 42%. Householders only managed a 40% recycling rate in 2010. The idea of the Voluntary Responsibility Deal is to cover all areas of resource management but it does highlight three main waste streams where more can be done by businesses to reduce environmental impacts.

Paper

This is by far the most easily recyclable material in the UK with well developed systems available for removal and reuse. Defra believes there are still improvements to be made, particularly in targeted areas such as direct mail. The Direct Mail Association is working on a new industry standard for sustainable production in this sector aimed at reducing unwanted, unsolicited direct mail and calculating the carbon impact of what is being sent.

Food

16 million tonnes of waste are produced a year, a landfill nightmare when it rots producing greenhouse gases. No wonder there is a focus on reducing this. The hospitality sector produces around 3.4 million tonnes of food waste and is seen as a major contributor to the problem. Government departments and agencies such as WRAP are tasking this sector to find more efficient food management techniques (such as better portion control and other preventative measures) and alternative methods to landfill disposal such as anaerobic digestion. WRAP’s recent report provides details of the issues and recommendations in how the hospitality industries could be saving £740 million a year for themselves with better management. Other options for food waste include composting systems for soil conditioning or drying systems prior to burning for energy production.

Packaging

According to the Environmental Agency, 7.7 million tonnes was recycled in the UK last year, beating the target of 6.8 million tonnes set by the government. The government is working with businesses to increase the use of recycled content in packaging as well as to make it more recyclable. A new consultation process will also take place, getting businesses to reduce packaging use over 2013 to 2017. A series of impact assessments will be run before the consultation and these will determine the scale and reach of packaging reductions. There is also a focus on a sub category of packaging; glass. Various groups are looking for reuse applications for this material including re-melting it for new product manufacturing. There should be more details about technologies and opportunities for this in the 2012 budget.

Other areas of concern are textiles and construction. For the former, a roadmap for sustainable clothing is being proposed covering design, clothing use behaviours and reuse/up-cycling. The supply chain is likely to come under scrutiny too. For the latter, the current downturn means less waste is coming from this sector, but there is still a great deal to do. The advent of site waste management plans on developments of over £300,000 has enabled better categorisation and sorting of waste and help with recycling.