September has been a good month for seeing the beauty of the Northern Ireland landscape from the air.
I’ve made a couple of trips there and on top of the inspiring topography I have been uplifted by the amount of circular economy work that is going on.
The first trip was to the ADBA conference in Belfast where I learned about plans for Northern Ireland to become over 80% self-sufficient in gas by expanding and integrating its AD infrastructure with the current gas network. The second visit was to a workshop run by DAERA to engage with stakeholders on their new waste management strategy. They are moving ahead with carbon reduction, consistency, EPR and DRS at a fantastic rate and it was great to feel the enthusiasm in the room and listen to the many different stakeholders there.
The highs of visiting Northern Ireland were a good counterpoise to the lack of action in England. Any hope that the resolution of the PM situation in early September would invigorate activity on the consistency and DRS responses were quickly dashed. I presented at the Collections Conference in Warwick and the overall feeling there was one of despondency with the silence coming out of Defra. Every presentation and Q&A sessions covered the same problems, and the message was clear:
We need….CLARITY of POLICY to give CERTAINTY for INVESTMENT so we can ACT NOW
This seems a reasonably simple message to me, but it seems that those in charge are just not getting it. Local authorities are being pushed into short term contracts on less favourable terms because of the uncertainty in the market. Contractors are wary of entering into contracts that may be undermined by the consistency rules, or the TEP/SEB and E&E tests. Everyone at the Collections Conference, whether local authority, waste management company or consultancy, bemoaned the continued lack of progress and apparent uninterested responses from the UK Government. We have yet to see the enthusiasm for EPR, DRS and consistency from the new ministerial team at Defra so there is hope things may change.
But as LARAC is a UK wide organisation, I take great professional pride on the work being done in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and their determination to progress their circular economy work and tackle the carbon impact of waste and recycling activities. A clear focus on getting things done will produce great achievements and better outcomes for their communities.
Next week is the LARAC UK annual conference. It is possibly the biggest event of the year for local authority staff and service providers to be in the same place for two days, engaging about the services we provide to residents and how we can do better. It is always inspiring, and you will meet fantastic people who are passionate about what we do. I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can and I’m sure it will be a great success.
