While successive European Directives have shaped our recycling services, the time has come to take more imaginative steps to support the environment, communities and businesses.
For sustainability to work it must be affordable and accessible. The EU’s Circular Economy package would have cost UK businesses £1.9 billion over the next 20 years, and forced local authorities to deliver recycling services at the expense of other critical frontline services.
Through Brexit and the forthcoming Resources and Waste Strategy, we can now take a more pragmatic approach to address the realities of the market.
The UK is already punching above its weight with resource efficiency, and the waste sector is playing critical role in helping society waste less and recycle more.
FCC welcomed CIWM’s focus on re-use after it had long being overshadowed by the need to meet EU targets for separate waste collections – rather than on reducing waste and creating decent jobs. Our award-winning repair and re-use schemes have made a strong case for adding value to the economy at the very top of the waste hierarchy.
Social, economic and environmental outcomes need to be considered in balance to build a waste and resource strategy that works. When taken together, the combined impacts of recycling tell a different story to the EU’s narrative of endless collection and supply – with little in the way of demand for low-grade secondary material. The restrictions on exports to China have shown the short-sightedness of that approach.
We can bring some sense back into our waste strategy by basing decisions on the ends rather than the means. High energy efficiency technologies, including combined heat and power from incineration facilities can reduce our waste exports, provide energy security, and reduce the overall environmental impacts of waste management. Reprocessing and energy recovery infrastructure will surely both have a bigger role to play in our national sustainability ambitions once we have exited the European Union.
This in turn will open up new doors for local authorities to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to waste services, and proper consideration of direct charging is now due. The recent LARAC Policy Paper calling for alternative funding approaches to deliver self-sustaining solutions has done a superb job shaping the debate.
While question marks linger over the final Brexit deal, we can all look forward to a period of realism and transformation, so that together we can create a resource-efficient and sustainable nation that focuses on genuine results.
While football won’t be coming home in 2018, at least our approach to resource and waste management will be taking on a more UK-centric feel, and that’s surely something we can all celebrate.
Please note all opinions expressed in blogs belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of LARAC
