Government launches full waste policy review

The government has today unveiled plans for a wholesale review of waste policy in England designed to accelerate improvements in recycling rates and maximise the economic benefits associated with waste management.

The review, the terms of which will be confirmed within the next few weeks, was announced by environment secretary Caroline Spelman at the Futuresource waste and sustainability conference in London's Docklands.

"There is an economic and environmental urgency to developing the right waste strategy," she told attendees at the event. "We have been slowly moving in the right direction with recycling rates. The direction of travel is right – it's the pace that's the problem. We need to go faster and we need to go further."

She added that the new review would make good on the coalition government's pledge to work towards the creation of a zero-waste economy across the UK and would aim to identify those policies that can help firms realise the economic value associated with waste materials.

"We cannot keep putting recyclable and biodegradable material into landfill, " she said. "It threatens the environment and wastes what are incredibly valuable natural resources. We have an unprecedented opportunity to create green jobs, green growth, and take our share of the green jobs of the future."

The review is expected to look at policies that can bolster the economic contribution of the waste and recycling sectors and will also examine how to create a so-called zero-waste economy where the amount of waste produced and sent to landfill is drastically reduced.

In particular, it will explore new ways of handling commercial waste and assess the effectiveness of "responsibility deals" whereby businesses such as supermarkets voluntarily agree to reduce the amount of packaging and waste they produce.

Several of the coalition's waste policies are also expected to be moved forward through the review, including plans to use incentive schemes to help households recycle and proposals to accelerate the rollout of anaerobic digestion technologies capable of generating energy from food waste.

A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the review would look at the previous government's proposals for a landfill ban for some recyclable waste materials such as wood, glass and certain metals.

"The consultation on landfill bans was completed last week and while it was instigated by the previous government, the responses for the consultation will be looked at and the government will then make a decision on whether to take the policy forward," he said.

With Defra recently confirming it will cut its budget by five per cent this year as part of the coalition's deficit reduction programme, the review is likely to consider a consolidation of the government's various waste initiatives and quangos.

The Defra spokesman said the deadline for the policy review would be announced at the same time as the full remit for the study is announced, although the scale of the review means it could take years until its recommendations translate into policy.

The announcement follows the launch last week of Scotland's zero-waste policy, which includes many waste and recycling targets designed to slash waste levels over the next decade. Wales is also known to be working on a similar range of policies designed to cut waste levels and improve recycling capacity.