August is traditionally a time when staff are on holidays, Government are in recess and things are comparatively quiet. Whilst the first two have remained true, this year has continued to be busy in terms of waste and recycling policy and activity.
As we entered the second month under the new Labour Government, LARAC wrote to Mary Creagh MP, the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary for DEFRA, outlining three key asks in respect of local authorities and the waste reforms. These centre around ‘efficient and effective’ requirements for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), flexibility on frequency of residual waste collections, and providing local authorities with greater enforcement powers.
We also started to see life return to the Collection and Packaging Reforms (CPR), with activity from DEFRA, devolved administrations, regulators, and enforcement bodies.
This included DEFRA announcing and presenting the illustrative EPR base fees for 2024-25 and details of the roadmap for the reforms over the next few weeks and months. I have no doubt the same was said last year, and possibly years before, but this will be a space to watch as we head into autumn.
Things have also been busy in the devolved nations, with consultations launched on charging for single-use disposable beverage cups in Scotland, and three new and two amended standard rules permits in Wales.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) hosted webinars and question and answer sessions on proposals to change subsistence fees for materials facilities in Scotland. We have been busy working with our devolved members on our responses to both this, and the lower rate of Landfill Disposals Tax in Wales, and will be submitting these soon.
Away from policy, and to help increase my knowledge of local authority processes, I had the pleasure of joining the team at South Staffordshire District Council for a couple of days to see and discuss the work done there around collection of waste and recycling from households.
This included speaking with the customer service staff on taking calls from residents in relation to their collections, attending a council meeting focusing on the introduction of food waste collections, complete with an excellent presentation from Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council’s Andrew Bird, and joining Biffa’s collection crews to get a glimpse behind the scenes of what’s involved for collections on the ground.
It was fantastic to be able to speak with those who are the first point of call when it comes to household waste collection, and it was also truly eye-opening to better understand just how sophisticated these systems can be.
Next up, event season begins, starting with the Resource and Waste Management (RWM) Expo, part of ESS, on 11 and 12 September. LARAC will be there within the LARAC Lounge so be sure to drop in and say hello!
