A major consultation on the Government's strategy for waste has suggested that a broader approach and a change of emphasis is needed. This could involve working more closely with businesses and retailers in key sectors to reduce waste and recover more resources.
Minister for Local Environmental Quality Ben Bradshaw stated that positive progress has been made since 2000, with recycling and composting of household waste doubling and nearly 50% of packaging waste recycled. Less waste is also being sent to landfill. However, more needs to be done to achieve the aim of reducing waste streams and burying less in landfills. This could mean thinking more about the life cycle of a product, identifying and targeting products with the most significant waste impacts before they even reach the consumer and using what waste is produced as a resource to produce economic and environmental benefits. There are also proposals to attempt to move towards a recycling culture by encouraging recycling at work as well as at home.
The consultation paper is available from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) website, and the deadline for any comments is 9 May 2006. The last Waste Strategy was published in May 2000.
In other waste news, the Scottish Executive has announced that Scotland has reached its target of recycling or composting 25% of its municipal waste by 2006. However, they still languish behind international best practice and many of their EU neighbours, some of whom already recycle over 50%.
