What a pleasure it was last week to work with colleagues over the border in Wales to see how things should really be done!
Take note DEFRA, after a couple of years of uncertainty and delays to the reforms affecting the rest of the nations, it was so refreshing last week to chair the LARAC Wales conference in Cardiff, where concerted efforts by Local Authorities and residents have earned them the place of third highest country in the world for recycling. What a fantastic achievement!
And last week a lot of the discussion was around the top of the waste hierarchy – reuse and repair – as well as the move towards a more circular economy and the planned approaches towards business waste recycling. So Wales are addressing the whole package from restricting waste, reusing resources, repairing materials and moving towards net zero carbon.
This journey has taken them a number of years and some could argue that they have had to make some difficult and controversial decisions, however, the results speak for themselves, and with regards to residents and consumers there has been no significant push back or negativity. So it just goes to show what is possible.
Of course some may argue that we cant compare the rest of the UK to Wales, and its true that across the country there are many differences in terms of urban density, housing type, age, deprivation, culture to name bit a few, all of which have been evidenced to influence recycling rates. However, Wales has all of these different variables and more, but despite this, it has come together as a country to achieve excellent results.
And although there are many variables, it’s the principles that are important. Its not all carrot, and some sticks are needed, however, I believe that residents want to do the right thing, they just sometimes need a bigger nudge in the right direction!
As for the next few months, with the lack of any progress on the reforms in England, LARAC will be turning its attention to other areas, including vapes and NOx cannisters, which we have been informed by both our members and from a number of other sources, are increasingly becoming more of a problem. The issues relate both to the ability to recycle these materials and also the health and safety aspects of managing them, in particular the dangers of fires being caused by the lithium batteries within vapes.
Our Policy and Communications Officer Toni McNamara, will be working hard over the Summer to develop a LARAC stance on this issue, in order to help develop our activities going forward, as this is likely to continue to be an increasingly problematic area.
Watch this space for further updates!
