A great deal of my time over the past few months has been taken up with work on the Collection and Packaging reforms, but more recently, two significant other policy reforms have been filling my days.
Firstly, the long awaited consultation (and call for evidence) on the WEEE Regulations, which are proposing a number of changes which will directly affect collection and disposal authorities.
LARAC has run two webinars in the past few weeks on the consultation, which have been both very well attended and also very useful for myself and members of the LARAC team in putting together information for our response.
We issued a draft response to members on 5th February (if you’ve not seen it you can find it HERE), and we will be issuing our final response to members during the week commencing 26th February. Members will be able to use this version for their own individual responses if they choose to do so. The closing date for the consultation is 7th March 2024.
Secondly, I have been spending time on the issues surrounding the decision to include incineration facilities within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2028. Although this policy was agreed during 2023 following a 2022 consultation (please find LARAC's consultation response HERE), there is now a lot more focus and work being carried out on the consequences that this may have on Local Authorities.
The key consequence if of course the additional costs that will be added to residual waste disposal by incinerator operators, to cover the payments they will need to make under the ETS. Although it is hard to calculate the costs at the stage, industry stakeholders all agree that it will be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds.
Other concerns arising from industry about the potential unintended consequences of this new policy, include the potential for disposal to landfill or via RDF exports to become more financially attractive than incineration in the coming years.
LARAC will be continuing to provide members with ongoing information about this and will of course be lobbying on members behalf and responding to the next upcoming consultation around the ETS, the timing of which is currently unknown.
In addition to policy information, LARAC is continuing its series of webinars for members, and on the 27th February we are planning to hold a webinar on ‘difficult to recycle materials’ including vapes and NOx cannisters. We have heard a lot from members over the past few months about the rising concerns of addressing these materials, and hope that this webinar will provide some key insights, so please look out for the booking details.
