House of Commons - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Written Evidence

Memorandum submitted by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) (X27)

INTRODUCTION

1. WRAP welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to this inquiry, which follows on from the Committee's previous inquiry in 2002-03 The Future of Waste Management.

2. WRAP was created as a result of actions to boost recycling and market development in the Government's Waste Strategy 2000 for England and Wales. [66]This strategy document and subsequent policy initiatives remain the primary strategic response in England to the demands of the EU Landfill Directive. In Wales, this document was superseded in 2002 by the publication of Wise about Waste,[67] the Welsh Assembly Government's own waste strategy, alongside strategic waste plans for Scotland and Northern Ireland[68]which were also developed separately from that developed for England.

3. WRAP's mission is to accelerate resource efficiency through the creation of stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products, and by removing barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.

4. We work across the United Kingdom, and are funded by Defra (through core funding, and through the Waste Implementation Programme), DTI and the Devolved Administrations. Our programmes today spread across market development, household waste minimisation, communications, and support for local authorities—some of which are delivered across the United Kingdom with others primarily applicable to England with varied contributions from the Devolved Administrations depending on their interest in the particular programme. Earlier this year, we published our second Business Plan,[69] setting out our objectives and targets for 2004-06 and describing our work in greater detail than space permits in this submission.

PROGRESS ON RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING ACROSS THE UK

5. WRAP believes that the United Kingdom is now making substantive and rapid progress towards the challenging recycling and composting targets we have set for ourselves, as part of our strategy for compliance with the Landfill Directive. In 2002-03 for England, local authorities recycled and composted 15.6% of municipal waste.[70] In our view, they are likely to exceed the 17% target set for 2003-04 and, although the higher 25% target is still challenging within the time available, local authorities do have a fair chance of meeting the 25% target set for 2004-05. Momentum is being gained rapidly by many local authorities, especially since further investment in new collection systems (funded locally as well as by Defra) have been introduced in many areas, combined with further investment in promotional activities and waste reducing activities such as home composting. This is making it easier for more people to recycle conveniently at home, with at least 65% of the UK population now having some form of kerbside collection scheme available to them—even if it is just for newspapers and magazines at this stage. Landfilling of municipal waste reduced in net terms in 2002-03 (by 300,000 tonnes) for the first time in many years, alongside the increasing percentage of material recycled. The English trends are positive, as illustrated in the graphs attached as Appendix 1.

6. In Wales, recent progress has been dramatic, with the 2003-04 Municipal Waste Survey for Wales[71]reporting a municipal recycling and composting rate of 17.6% for that year, compared to 12.7% for 2002-03. Again, this improvement corresponds with significant new sums of money being made available to councils and social enterprises for kerbside recycling schemes, and new composting schemes. Although progress has been less immediate in Scotland, the trend is still positive, with an increase in the municipal composting and recycling rate from 7.4% in 2001-02 to 9.6% in 2002-03, and again, this is expected to rise rapidly as new collection schemes come on stream, as they are now doing.

WRAP'S CONTRIBUTION—OUR FIRST THREE YEARS

7. WRAP's initial activities, focused on recycling market development, have contributed to the momentum now being generated in recycling and composting.

8. It is widely recognised that there is little point in collecting materials for recycling unless there is a market and an end use for that material. Recycling is a process, not a single event at the point of collection, and it requires industries to be capable and willing to utilise recovered materials, and industry, commerce and the public sector to buy and specify recycled and composted products. So, our work to remove market barriers to recycling, and create new markets for recovered materials has played a role in creating the climate within which more local authorities have invested in new collection and composting schemes. Greater detail on our approach to market development was outlined in our submission to your previous inquiry in 2002-03.

9. Our achievements against the targets set in our first Business Plan[72] (published in 2001) are reported in detail in our 2004 Achievements Report.[73] They are summarised here:

2,435,000 tonnes

2,484,000 tonnes

20 out of 23

fully or partially achieved

£123 million private sector investment leveraged

£563

10. Although, as in any three year plan, the tonnage delivered did not come from exactly the areas we originally expected, WRAP's programmes still delivered a small excess of 49,000 tonnes in relation to the accumulated total tonnage in our original Business Plan. If we include the additional work undertaken in aggregates recycling, which we commenced in 2002 following an allocation of funds from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, a total of 3,734,719 tonnes of additional material will be recycled or composted annually as a result of WRAP's programmes. A breakdown of this tonnage, showing projects completed and operational, projects under construction, and projects in delivery which will be completed over the next few years is described in the tables attached as Appendix 2, together with a breakdown by material.

11. WRAP concentrated on improving the climate in which recycling businesses, and those using recycled materials, can thrive and flourish. To achieve this, we invested heavily in research, development and pilot projects (to demonstrate new uses of materials), as well as investing in new capacity for treatment and processing of recyclables. Our work also brought more formality and structure to markets for processed materials by the introduction of new standards.

12. Some highlights of projects that illustrate these key elements of our work so far include:

— in research and development, successful proving of the ability of finely ground glass cullet to be used as a fluxing agent in brickmaking, with the ability to save up to 20% energy savings in the brick industry, with consequent benefits for CO2 emissions reduction;

— successful development of Panelplus, a recycled plastic panel using over 50% recycled materials with applications in commercial vehicle use, temporary buildings, floorboards. In vehicle panel use, this product is 60% lighter than conventional panels, with benefits accruing in energy saving or increased vehicle payload;

— investment in major new capacity in the newsprint industry to use recovered paper, with the conversion of the Shotton paper mill in North Wales to the use of 100% recovered fibre. This £17 million investment, approved by the European Commission, has led to an additional 321,000 tonnes of paper recycling every year, collected from up to an additional 4 million UK households; and

— development of a new British Standard Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for compost (BSI PAS 100), which provides a benchmark for the first time against which more users of compost can have confidence in the reliability of compost made from green waste. Over 60% of the UK's composting capacity is now accredited under this standard, bringing greater confidence to the marketplace in waste derived compost, with the potential to open up markets in landscaping and horticulture, hitherto untapped.

13. Our work in market development continues to develop, as it is clear that there is still much to do in this area. WRAP maintains constant dialogue with key stakeholders in the resource industries to ensure that our programmes remain close to business need and relevant to current challenges. In the next two years, as well as extended activity in our key materials of wood, plastics, paper, glass, organics and aggregates, we will be extending our market development work into other materials and products, such as tyres, batteries and difficult construction wastes (particularly plasterboard).

NEW CHALLENGES—HOUSEHOLD WASTE MINIMISATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND SUPPORT FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES

14. WRAP's resource efficiency remit now extends to address the challenge of household waste minimisation, improving public awareness of recycling and waste reduction, and supporting local authorities in improving their recycling performance. These responsibilities were acquired with funding in 2003 from Defra's Waste Implementation Programme, as a result of Waste Not: Want Not, the review of waste strategy in England conducted in 2002 by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (SU) in the Cabinet Office.[74]

15. The target on household waste minimisation, set through the recommendations of the SU report, is to reduce the rate of increase of household waste generation by 1%. To achieve this, WRAP is running a series of initiatives, all of which will contribute to this target:

Home composting

Real nappies

Work with major retailers

16. Improvements in local authority recycling and composting performance will be a key element of success if the Government's Landfill Directive targets are to be achieved. WRAP's role is to provide technical and communications support to councils through a dedicated advisory service—ROTATE—the Recycling and Organics Technical Advisory Team. This is a team of practitioners, able to provide hands-on advice quickly to councils who need help with designing new collection schemes or improving the performance of existing schemes, an area where there is considerable additional scope for action.

17. Supporting this is funding specifically to improve recycling participation through communications work. Almost £20 million is being invested now in schemes to boost the performance of existing kerbside and other schemes. While some of this activity is relatively prosaic, such as doorknocking campaigns—this is what is needed to help raise the public profile of recycling and remind the public of the services already on their doorstep. Simple, effective campaigns can boost participation by anything up to 50% and are very cost effective ways of getting more out of existing investments in vehicles and boxes. This work is being evaluated comprehensively, and full reports on the success of this approach will be published as work is completed during 2005 and 2006.

18. Underpinning all of this activity is a new, £10 million national awareness campaign for England, Recycle Now. This features colourful TV and press advertising, backed up with a support package for councils and provision of a new, modern symbol for recycling which many councils are now using. Celebrity endorsements such as Eddie Izzard and Matthew Pinsent have helped to give the campaign a flying start this autumn, supported by Environment Minister Elliot Morley MP. A first review of the impact of this campaign will be undertaken in December 2004, and results will be made available to the Committee when complete.

19. This work is a key component of a package which includes local communications activity, extra collection services, and more market outlets for the collected material. Together they make up the main ingredients to WRAP's resource efficiency activities for local government and business.

20. WRAP is conscious that much of this new activity in waste minimisation, collection support and communications is still relatively new—although they are all based on established good practice in other countries, where results have been delivered. Although well beyond start up phase, most of these activities are only now being delivered at full capacity. Most importantly, WRAP remains committed to sharing the learning of lessons which will be learned from all of this new work and its impact in the UK context. As this work develops in the coming months, we will be happy to share our experiences with the Committee as we all continue to deliver our commitment to resource efficiency in the United Kingdom.

APPENDIX 1

MUNICIPAL WASTE RECYCLING AND LANDFILLING IN ENGLAND

DATA FROM DEFRA MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT SURVEYS

APPENDIX 2

WRAP ACHIEVEMENTS REPORT 2004

TONNAGE—SUMMARY OF TONNAGE FROM ACTIONS 2001-04

Material Stream	Tonnes
Glass	864,242
Paper	378,070
Wood	577,501
Plastics	84,756
Aggregates	1,251,200
Organics	578,950
TOTALS	3,734,719

STATUS OF TONNAGE FROM ACTIONS 2001-04

Completed and operational	Under construction or otherwise committed	In delivery	TOTAL
954,449	737,200	2,043,070	3,734,719

APPENDIX 3

WRAP ACHIEVEMENTS REPORT 2004

PRIVATE INVESTMENT LEVERAGE

Project	Tonnage /Year	WRAP Expenditure	Private Funding Leveraged	WRAP £ / Tonne over 10 years	Private Investment for each WRAP £1
Shotton Paper Mill (Paper)	321,000	£17,203,760	£111,000,000	£5.36	£6.45
JFC Delleve (Plastics)	20,000	£1,150,000	£2,000,000	£5.75	£1.74
A W Jenkinson (Wood)	60,000	£120,000	£258,000	£0.20	£2.15
G I Hadfield & Son Ltd (Wood)	40,000	£500,000	£1,017,000	£1.25	£2.03
3 Organics Projects	35,000	£91,600	£519,200	£0.26	£5.67
16 Aggregates Projects	980,000	£2,413,000	£6,039,291	£0.25	£2.50
TOTAL	1,456,000	£21,478,360	£120,833,491	£1.51	£5.63
9 November 2004