Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Minutes of Evidence



Examination of witnesses (Questions 733 - 739)

TUESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2000

MS SARAH OPPENHEIMER and MS LIANA STUPPLES

Chairman

  733. Can I welcome you to the last session this morning and can I ask you to identify yourselves for the record?
  (Ms Stupples) My name is Liana Stupples and I am campaigns director of Friends of the Earth.
  (Ms Oppenheimer) My name is Sarah Oppenheimer and I am waste campaigner of Friends of the Earth.

  734. Do you want to say anything by way of introduction?
  (Ms Stupples) With your indulgence, I would like to tell a little story because it struck me hearing the previous witnesses that Friends of the Earth in the United Kingdom is coming up to its 30th anniversary. It was almost 30 years ago that we did one of the first campaigns that we ever ran and that was about returnable bottle schemes.

  735. It failed, did it not?
  (Ms Stupples) Yes. We took thousands of Schweppes bottles back to their headquarters and dumped them on the doorstep of Schweppes, telling them not to schhhhh on Britain.

  I think it is a bit of a sad indictment that 30 years later we still do not seem to have a returnable scheme; nor do we have the kind of approach to waste management that we hoped that action would engender 30 years ago. Of course, I would say that this is not a reflection on Friends of the Earth's effectiveness. One could even say that it is quite a depressing business and I would like to think that in 30 years' time we still would not have to be campaigning on waste. However, over the past 30 years I think it is important to note in the context here that we have used just about every tactic there is in the book to be able to promote waste reduction. We have researched the technologies and techniques; we have done huge public information campaigns; we have set up our own recycling schemes; we have worked with local authorities on projects like Recycling City; we have worked with waste companies on putting forward handbooks of best practice; we have worked with local communities about exposing where the standards of waste disposal were completely inadequate; we have blown the whistle on dodgy landfills; we have campaigned in Europe and whatever. All of that has been done and yet I still do not think we have actually addressed the true challenge that we face. We have had some great victories, if you like. Yes, public opinion is definitely on our side, as you were referring to. We have a landfill tax. We even have statutory recycling targets now, but if you look at where we need to be in the next 30 years—and I know your Committee has previously pointed this out—we need to make something of the order of 80 per cent reduction in the kind of material throughput that we have in our economy. The gradual approach that we have taken over the last 30 years I do not think is going to be sufficient. We need to create some kind of mechanism to allow us to leapfrog that pattern of development. There are a lot of members of the public out there who feel extremely disenfranchised because they thought that they were going to be able to recycle and reduce their waste. We do need to try to create those economic conditions that will enable us to leapfrog so that we can have an economy that sets up the situation where it pays to reduce your waste.

  736. In spite of all that, actual domestic waste is increasing according to local authorities by about three per cent in each person's bin per year.
  (Ms Stupples) If you look at the figures, the optimistic thing is that it is staying the same and the pessimistic thing is that it is getting worse. If you come back to the topic in hand which is the waste strategy there is a glaring omission in that there is no target to set about reducing the waste that is generated overall. Although we have been enthusiastic supporters of recycling over the past and indeed I think recycling has a big role to play in waste reduction, we do not see recycling as an end in itself. It is not a religion, but we do have to seriously start looking at what we are going to do to address waste right back at the beginning of the chain.

Mr Blunt

  737. What should have been in the strategy?
  (Ms Oppenheimer) We think the starting point, the ultimate aim, is a reduction in primary resource use. One thing that Friends of the Earth has done in a publication called Tomorrow's World is to look at individual materials in the waste stream and calculate what percentage reduction we need to achieve for those in order to achieve sustainability, and live within environmental limit. For example, with wood we need to achieve perhaps a 67 per cent reduction and with some metals it is between 65 and 90 per cent. Then the strategy should put together a package of measures to achieve that reduction. That would include high levels of recycling and also waste minimisation. Instead of the strategy accepting that waste is rising, the strategy should determine that it is going to put a cap on those arisings to make sure that we minimise as much as we recycle.

  738. Do you think local authorities should be set a target for waste reduction?
  (Ms Oppenheimer) That would be one measure to make sure minimisation takes place. There are things that local authorities can do such as encouraging home composting, providing nappy washing services and advertising those. I think local authorities should be encouraged and perhaps set a target to make sure that happens, but what local authorities can do is also limited with regard to waste minimisation because they are not responsible for a lot of the waste.

  739. What is your attitude to Surrey County Council who have entered into quite a controversial waste disposal contract with SITA, but that contract does include an obligation to be responsible for growth in municipal waste being only one per cent per annum, not three per cent per annum, which is the current trend. What is your view of that arrangement?
  (Ms Oppenheimer) I am not aware of the details of the contract.


 
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