Here’s hoping that everyone had a wonderful Easter break and managed to relax over the Bank Holiday in the sunshine. But not to worry, there are a couple more Bank Holidays around the corner as we move towards the Summer.
Since my last blog in March, the deadline has passed for the implementation of Simpler Recycling within businesses and non household municipal (NHM) premises, and although I don’t have access to specific numbers and facts, I have certainly noticed places whilst I have been out and about who are not compliant. This is understandable given the thousands of premises that fall under these categories – as even if an individual premises has less than 10 full time equivalent (fte) staff, they still fall under the deadline to meet the regulations by March 2025 if they are part of a larger enterprise.
We are being encouraged by the Environment Agency to make them aware of any relevant businesses or NHM that are not in compliance, so that they are able to investigate further. There are concerns however, that due to the sheer scale of the undertaking and the lack of resources within the Environment Agency to address this, that many premises will fall under the radar. However, it is still worthwhile making the Environment Agency aware.
In other policy news, DEFRA has recently published a tender for the pEPR Efficiency & Effectiveness (E&E) LA Improvement Action Process (IAP) Pilot Scheme. This relates to a 6 month pilot that DEFRA intends to run to assess the delivery of an Improvement Action Process (IAP). The IAP is intended to be put into place for LAs who ‘struggle to be effective’. As it stands, there is currently not a defined outline of exactly what ‘effective’ means with regards to the pEPR process, however, it is intended that this will be developed over the next few months through a specific committee which will work with the Scheme Administrator.
The IAP is not intended to kick in for another couple of years, and the pilot is just that – a pilot to determine if and how the current draft process needs to adapt.
So as always, things continue to move along in the world of waste policy, and as always, LARAC is working hard to engage with all of these groups and processes in order to ensure that the needs of Local Authorities are fully considered, and as LARAC members, you can be certain that your voice is heard.
