MPs slam government's rubbish approach to business waste

The government is failing to tackle the business waste that makes up over 90 per cent of England's waste mountain, and is guilty of relying on "vague ambitions and rhetoric" rather than binding targets to address commercial and industrial waste.

That is the stark conclusion of a damning report released by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of MPs, which concludes that while the government has made good progress on tackling levels of household waste, it has failed to develop a coherent strategy for addressing business waste.

"We remain unconvinced that current policies for tackling commercial and industrial waste are sufficiently robust to drive maximum improvement in these sectors," the committee stated in the report, adding that, "there are insufficient mechanisms specific to these sectors, rather a reliance on general incentives such as avoidance of landfill tax and economic benefits from lower wastage levels."

It recommended that the government introduce firm targets for business waste, noting that despite the fact commercial and industrial waste accounts for 90 per cent of England's waste streams, currently only the construction sector is subject to a firm target to halve waste sent to landfill by 2012.

"Defra must give a clear lead on what it thinks the potential is for business to reduce its waste levels and increase its rates of recycling," said committee chairman Michael Jack MP. "At the same time it must encourage companies to take a completely new view of waste and see it as a valuable source of raw material, which must not be squandered in these difficult economic times".

In addition to targets for business waste, the committee recommended new legislation that would require firms to report publicly on how they are improving recycling rates and provide the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) with data on the amount of waste they produce.

It also urged the government to re-evaluate the impact of controversial funding cuts for business waste advisory bodies such as those run by the Waste Resources Action Programme and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, and called for increased budgets for enforcement agencies, noting that there is evidence that waste regulations such as the waste electronic and electrical equipment "have been circumvented on a wide scale".

The government axed a number of key waste advisory agencies last year, integrating them into the Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP) as part of a budget-saving exercise, and according to internal Defra documents obtained by BusinessGreen.com, the department is considering slashing spending on its waste strategy from £117.1m in 2009/10 to £53.9m in 2010/2011.

Philip Mossop, development director at environmental and waste consultancy The Green House, said that it was "surprising" the government had not put in place clear targets for business waste.

"There are targets for renewable energy use and targets for zero-carbon buildings, but not for waste," he said, adding that the government's reluctance to adopt targets may be partly explained by the fact that there is not yet the waste-to-energy and recycling infrastructure in place to shift all waste streams away from landfill.

However, he argued that without clear targets the development of the necessary infrastructure would be hampered. "We are again falling behind other parts of Europe where landfill is already an unusual concept simply because nobody has any reason to landfill waste because waste is seen as a resource," he said. "If we want to be seen as a country with high standards of dealing with our waste and recycling, then the government needs to take the lead with targe t-driven legislation. What will automatically follow are commercial solutions to helping businesses achieve these targets."

The Committee offered a more positive assessment of the government's strategy for tackling household waste, reporting that the amount of waste sent to landfill in England and Wales fell 23 per cent between 2001 and 2007, while household recycling rates have climbed to 37 per cent and the number of plastic bags being disposed of has fallen from 13bn in 2007-8 to 10bn in 2008-9.

However, it called for further action, urging the government to adopt more ambitious household recycling targets of 50 per cent by 2015 and 60 per cent by 2020, set a target for mandatory collection of all food waste, and accelerate plans to ban recyclable materials such as glass, metal and wood from being sent to landfill.

Mossop said that the shift in attitudes to household waste had played a key role in increasing pressure on businesses to reduce their waste streams. "We often find that one of the main reason businesses are looking to address their waste is because of their staff," he observed. "They are increasingly saying, 'we do this recycling at home, why can't we do it at work?'"

The report was broadly welcomed by industry insiders, but one expert warned that for it to have a significant effect on the UK's waste levels it would need to result in a complete u-turn from the government.

"This report serves to highlight the three glaringly obvious flaws at the heart of the government's waste strategy: that it is solely focused on household waste, that it is obsessed with recycling over waste minimisation, and that it is ignoring business waste and disinvesting in support, particularly for small businesses," he said. "What it is calling for is nothing less than a radical reversal of current government thinking."