MEMORANDUM BY THE RECYCLING CONSORTIUM
(DSW 72)
Please find below The Recycling Consortium's
evidence regarding the Sub-committee's investigation of the recently
produced Government Waste Strategy 2000. Firstly I will submit
some details of The Consortium's work to indicate our experience
in this field and will concentrate our comments to those areas
which we feel particularly relates to this experience.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
ABOUT THE
RECYCLING CONSORTIUM
The Recycling Consortium, based in Bristol,
was formed in 1989 by four leading recycling operations who themselves
have been active since the early 1980's:
— Avon Friends of the Earth has pioneered
the development of kerbside collection projects in Bristol, Bath
and NE Somerset and South Gloucestershire and Stroud becoming
one of the largest operators of kerbside projects in the country.
Avon FoE also take a leading role in working with local authorities
on developing their recycling policies and plans.
— Children's Scrapstore provides a
valuable service to local businesses by taking non-toxic waste
materials and making them available to schools, playgroups and
youth groups, encouraging teachers, playworkers and parents to
reuse waste creatively.
— Resourcesaver, which is part of the
Avon FoE group of companies, operates the kerbside recycling service
to 140,000 householders in Bristol. Materials collected include
newspapers and magazines, cans, glass bottles and jars, textiles,
car batteries and sump oil and is currently running a trial for
10,000 households for the addition of plastic bottles.
— The SOFA Project collects unwanted
furniture and household appliances throughout the old Avon area
and makes these available to people on low-incomes. Gas and electrical
appliances are refurbished in SOFA's workshop and CFC's are degassed
from redundant fridges.
The Consortium works with its members to promote
waste reduction, reuse and recycling in a number of ways:
— Community Waste Action—working
with new and existing community groups to support and develop
locally based 3R initiatives eg community composting schemes,
community art using reclaimed materials, local publicity and information
sheets etc. Since 1995 13 local "waste action groups"
have been established in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and B&NES.
DETR and landfill tax credit funding has allowed the production
of a Toolkit for others wishing to develop similar work. This
has been evaluated by six local authority and community sector
partners and will be available in its final form in October 2000.
The work has attracted a great deal of interest from many quarters
as people begin to recognise the importance of finding new ways
of engaging local communities in solutions to waste problems.
— Education work with schools—working
with primary and secondary schools on waste issues. Currently
this work is taking place in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.
Participating schools are offered classroom sessions, assemblies,
workshops, practical projects eg paper recycling and composting
as well as educational resources for use by teachers. Resources
developed are freely available on The Consortium's web site (www.recyclingconsortium.org.uk).
— Publicity and promotional work—working
with local media, producing promotional literature, products and
exhibitions, events, etc. The Consortium is running Bristol's
publicity campaign "Rubbish Revolution—Making Waste
Work for Bristol" in partnership with the Council, SITA and
Resourcesaver. In addition the Consortium contributes to B&NES'
Rethink Rubbish campaign and is in discussions with the new contractor
for South Gloucestershire regarding publicity work.
— Information and advice—a telephone
helpline is run by the Consortium as part of its work on the Rubbish
Revolution, and a variety of information and advice sheets are
available for the general public. Such local points of contact
are important and nationally produced information is no substitute
for sound local advice. Staff on our helpline are dedicated to
working on the 3R's and are able to engage the public on the full
range of services available. Thus when someone telephones with
a recycling enquiry they are also made aware of other services
available. Helplines run by the local authority which cover the
full range of council services rarely have the time or flexibility
to engage callers in this way. The Consortium has also developed
its own web site.
The Consortium is an active member of a number
of local, regional and national organisations: Waste Watch, Community
Recycling Network, Community Composting Network, Furniture Recycling
Network, Western Partnership for Sustainable Development and South
West CRN.
COMMENTS ON
WASTE STRATEGY
2000
We welcome the publication of Waste Strategy
2000 and recognise that it represents a significant step forward
in the way the Government is seeking to move towards sustainable
waste management. It follows a long period of inaction when lip
service was paid to the size of the problem and there was a complete
lack of recognition that in order to achieve the recycling targets
set significant resources would have to be deployed. Whether or
not Waste Strategy 2000 goes far enough remains to be seen but
it is at least a step in the right direction.
Our detailed comments on the strategy are given
below and referenced to key sections of the document.
Chapter Two—Our vision
We would question whether municipal waste is
really growing at 3 per cent per year. In the Bristol area whilst
there have been increases in municipal waste these have been largely
confined to wastes delivered to civic amenity sites and much of
this is thought to be trade waste. Obviously the actual rate of
growth will have a significant bearing on the number and type
of new facilities needed.
We welcome the Government's call for a substantial
increase in recycling and composting and strongly believe that
this should be a priority over the next five to 10 years. The
UK is woefully behind its European partners in this field and
there is much to be done to achieve the targets being set. This
is going to require significant investment.
We are cautious about the role of energy from
waste and are opposed to the building of mass burn incinerators.
It is possible that some of the new emerging technologies may
have some part to play and we await with interest the results
of trials currently running eg pyrolosis.
We are extremely dubious about the wisdom of
encouraging the reuse of bottom ash. The recent problems encountered
in Newcastle by the reuse of bottom ash for pathways in parks
and allotments should ring alarm bells. The suggestion that this
toxic material could be suitable for use in construction materials
is extremely worrying. Would anyone really want their home or
office built of these materials. We have at least been encouraged
that DETR seem to be ruling that reuse of bottom ash cannot contribute
towards local authority recycling rates.
The introduction of statutory targets for municipal
waste is welcomed and we await with interest further details of
how the targets will be monitored and how non-achievement will
be dealt with. It is noticeable that already it is affecting how
seriously local authorities and waste management companies take
recycling and composting initiatives.
We feel much more could be done to improve sustainable
waste management in the commercial sector. Our own experience
of working with companies both large and small through the Western
Partnership for Sustainable Development suggests that resources
need to be deployed in giving companies practical advice and support.
Chapter Three—Levers for change
We welcome the establishment of the Waste and
Resources Action Programme (WRAPS) and look forward to further
details regarding its development. Given its "overarching
objective will be to promote more sustainable waste management"
we would hope and expect that the programme will seek a positive
working relationship with the community sector organisations that
have been working in this field over a number of years ie CRN
and Waste Watch. Public and private sector engagement in the issues
will be fundamental to the success of the programme. It is our
experience that there is widespread lack of knowledge and understanding
about waste issues, even amongst those who would count themselves
as environmentalists. The work of the National Waste Awareness
Initiative will be important in this respect. However from our
work in this field it is not enough simply to raise awareness.
People have to know how they can act on this awareness and given
the variation in local facilities and services much of this work
will have to take place at a local level.
We welcome the Government's commitment to require
public procurement of certain recycled products. It has been difficult
for small local organisations such as ourselves to put pressure
on public bodies and it is right that Government is taking a lead
on this issue.
Whilst welcoming the Government's commitment
to develop markets for recycled products we feel more needs to
be done in this area and will require investment for new reprocessing
facilities.
The current producer responsibility legislation,
as it relates to packaging, has not been effective and we look
forward to the findings of the current review. We have supported
the Recycled Content of Newsprint Bill in the past and will be
keen to follow the progress of the voluntary agreement made with
newspaper publishers regarding targets for newsprint recycling.
With regard to the WEE Directive we feel the
Government should encourage the reuse of household appliances
through the community sector whereby goods are passed on to households
on low income. Such initiatives also meet social needs.
We welcome the Government's commitment to use
the landfill tax credit scheme to deliver an increase in recycling,
particularly of household waste. However we feel that much more
discussion needs to take place to ensure that the scheme is effective
in the future. Whilst the Consortium and its members have been
able to make use of the scheme to take forward many aspects of
their work, we are aware that this is not true in all parts of
the country. We would welcome the opportunity to take part in
further discussions about how the scheme could be improved.
Chapter 4—Delivering change
We welcome the recognition given by the Government
to the community sector for its work in developing and delivering
high quality and innovative sustainable waste management schemes
in partnership with local authorities and the waste management
sector.
Further work does however need to be done on
how to foster these partnerships in the light of an increasing
number of local authorities letting long-term integrated waste
management contracts. Some lateral thinking is required to ensure
that the community sector's role is recognised in this process.
Bath and NE Somerset who have recently been awarded Beacon Status
for its partnership working has not followed the traditional contracting
route and this has allowed it a considerable degree of flexibility
in regard to developing services coupled with maximum control
over costs.
With regard to engaging consumers we would support
initiatives such as NWAI and "are you doing your bit"
campaign. However they are no substitute to local active engagement.
On their own they will achieve little, except perhaps a degree
of frustration as consumers are unable to relate national messages
to their own local situation. To rely on local authorities to
delivery the message will be totally inadequate. Much of our work
is involved in working with local people and groups to take action
on waste, not just raise awareness. This has included the provision
of information, organising visits to recycling and composting
projects as well as waste disposal and reprocessing facilities
and support for the development of their own waste initiatives.
This has been an important part of building up knowledge about
waste issues and developing the public's confidence to tackle
local issues for themselves. This work takes time and cannot be
done on the cheap. It involves much more than advertising and
leafleting and is essential if we are really to change people's
attitudes and behaviour. Local authorities should be actively
encouraged to work with community sector on these issues and to
recognise the important role that such organisations have to play.
Chapter 5—Monitoring and review
We are encouraged that the Government will set
up a monitoring group to produce an annual executive report. It
is not clear who will be members of the group, however we would
hope that this will be drawn from those who have a key part to
play in the delivery of the strategy and would expect that some
community sector representation will be sought.
September 2000
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