ABSTRACT
Waste affects every part of society and is not only
environmentally damaging but also expensive. Businesses, local
authorities, government and members of the public play a part
in the creation, management and disposal of waste and it is vital
that they all recognise the benefits of reducing waste and the
roles they must play in doing this. Whilst much attention has
previously been paid to re-use, recycling and waste management,
in this report we focus on waste reduction and there is now a
need for government and the media to promote the importance of
this message.
Whilst designers often have the potential to reduce
waste through better design, there is a lack of knowledge on designing
for sustainability. Some companies have shown that significant
reductions in waste are practical and profitable, but many businesses
fail to recognise the costs of their waste, do not factor this
into their design briefs and do not understand how to improve
production processes. We recommend that the Government should
take the lead in working with the Design Council, the Higher Education
Funding Council, design schools, industry and professional bodies
to ensure that sustainability and an understanding of the costs
of waste are embedded into the design curriculum.
There is a need for industry itself to take responsibility
in tackling waste. Big businesses can take the lead by demonstrating
the profitability of waste reduction measures and demanding good
practice from their suppliers. In order to promote waste reduction
simple methodologies should be developed to allow businesses to
analyse the lifetime implications of the materials, products or
services they produce. Small businesses in particular often lack
the understanding, motivation or resources to develop waste reduction
measures so clear guidance, knowledge transfer and leadership
within the business community is therefore needed. Local authorities
can provide vital support to businesses and we believe that the
Government should restructure the waste targets and costs imposed
upon local authorities to allow them to address commercial and
industrial waste. Furthermore, a proportion of the landfill tax
revenue should be ring-fenced to fund business support bodies
which promote waste reduction.
The legal status of waste materials and the restrictions
placed upon them have previously posed a barrier to their effective
re-use, but we hope that a revision of the Waste Framework Directive
will begin to address these problems. The European Commission
and Member States must now press ahead with the development of
quality criteria to clarify when materials cease to be waste and
the UK Government must urgently provide clear information about
the timescale for doing this so that industry can plan ahead.
Other pieces of legislation can be confusing for businesses and
whilst extended producer responsibility regulations may have encouraged
greater recycling, it is questionable whether they have promoted
waste reduction. We therefore recommend that the Government should
work with the European Commission and EU Member States to review
the ways in which directives are applied so that they foster real
innovation in waste reduction. We also believe that the UK should
implement individual producer responsibility for certain products.
To reduce waste permanently we must also tackle the
UK's high rate of wasteful consumption, but addressing consumer
behaviour will require a combination of education and encouragement.
We support the development of eco-labels to provide clear information
on products and recommend that this should be backed up by the
use of choice editing. We recognise that current markets do not
always favour the most sustainable strategies so manufacturers
and retailers face a real challenge in trying to promote sustainable
consumption alongside successful business models. The Government
should therefore work with retailers to accelerate the use of
sustainable business models and review the range of policies and
incentives that might be required to encourage their implementation.
The Government should also take the lead by ensuring that their
own performance in reducing waste is exemplary and their procurement
policies favour the most sustainable products. Nevertheless, there
is only so much that can be achieved by government alone and consumers
must also play their part by considering the wastefulness of their
behaviours and products they buy.
Although the Government have recognised the need
to promote waste reduction, we believe that their policies are
undermined by a lack of comprehensive data. We therefore recommend
that the Government should arrange for comprehensive surveys to
collect data on various waste streams to enable the formation
of an overall strategic direction and appropriate policies. The
Government should provide clarity on who will be taking the lead
in addressing production and consumption within each waste stream
and, together with the media, must now send clear and consistent
signals to industry, consumers and local authorities that waste
reduction is a priority which requires a collaborative approach.
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