Aims of our inquiry
4. We decided to undertake an inquiry into the future
of waste management and particularly how the Government should
encourage waste management options that are further up the 'waste
hierarchy'. The waste hierarchy was set out in the European Community's
Framework Directive on Waste (Council Directive 75/442/EEC). It
states that waste prevention and minimisation of waste generation
is the first priority for waste strategy. Where this is not possible,
the preferred means of managing waste, in descending order of
desirability are re-use, recycling, use of waste as a source of
energy, incineration without energy recovery and landfilling.
The Government accepted the waste hierarchy as a guiding principle
in Waste Strategy 2000 and the Strategy Unit's review endorsed
it as well. Consequently we decided that our terms of reference
should be:
"Taking account of the on-going inquiry
by the Environmental Audit Committee into current and past practice,
as well as the report from the Government's Strategy Unit, the
Committee will examine what steps should in future be taken in
order to move waste management up the 'waste hierarchy' (as set
out in the Waste Framework Directive). In particular the Committee
will look at best practice in recycling, energy recovery during
incineration, producer responsibility, and waste minimisation."[9]
5. In this report, we have concentrated on municipal
waste, most of which is household waste, because that was the
topic of the Strategy Unit's review. Furthermore, we do not attempt
an exhaustive analysis of the barriers to change and the lessons
that could be learnt from the rest of European Union: those topics
are amply discussed elsewhere.[10]
Instead we aim to identify areas that still need attention and
to focus debate on what we see as overarching problems, and to
discuss the priorities which should be set, and the incentives
which should be provided, to permit sustainable waste management.
6. We took oral evidence between January and April
2003, hearing from Waste Watch, the Waste and Resources Action
Programme (WRAP), the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment
(INCPEN), London Borough of Southwark Council, Bath and North
East Somerset Council, the Local Government Association, the Composting
Association, the Environmental Services Association, the Environment
Agency and Defra. We were ably assisted throughout by our specialist
advisor for this inquiry, Robin Murray.
7. During the inquiry, we visited a materials recovery
facility and a composting site in Rainham in Essex, a municipal
waste incinerator providing combined heat and power in Lewisham
in London, a cement plant using waste as fuel in Ketton in Rutland
and a plastics recycling project in Leicester. The Committee also
visited Denmark to learn from Danish experiences of managing waste.
Further details of all the visits we made are given on pages 17
and 20 and in the Appendix.
8. We would like to express our gratitude to all
those who gave evidence, both in writing and in person, to the
people and organisations who hosted our visits and to all those
who discussed waste with us, both formally and informally.
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