Government launches zero tolerance approach to waste

Echoing the controversial zero tolerance approach to crime developed in New York in the nineties, environment minister Jane Kennedy has announced six areas in the UK which are taking a “zero” approach to waste.

The so-called Zero Waste Places will go as far as possible to reduce the environmental impacts of waste from businesses and the wider community, under a plan championed by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

"Across England, we are seeing communities come together with innovative ideas and a shared determination to tackle waste locally,” said Kennedy. "These six Zero Waste Places will test what can be done to make it easier for people and businesses to change the way they view and deal with waste."

The six sites for the new approach include the London Boroughs of Brent and Lewisham, an area of Milton Keynes, and Kings Lynn in Norfolk.

The whole of the West Midlands is also part of the scheme and will develop a Zero Waste Region, focusing on businesses and organisations that produce a large quantity of waste and improving co-operation and cutting business waste right across the area, according to Defra.

The Zero Waste Places scheme is being managed on behalf of Defra by the BREW Centre for Local Authorities. The BREW Centre, a consortium between the Local Government Association, the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, Oxfordshire County Council and West Midlands Regional Assembly, encourages local authorities to find ways to help local businesses reduce their impact on the environment.

"These places will go as far as possible to reduce, re-use and recycle all types of waste whether it is from a home, a school or business. We are really looking forward to working with the six places and seeing how their approaches can change our behaviour towards waste," said BREW Centre manager Susan Kent.

The Zero Waste Place initiative was first announced as part of the Waste Strategy in May 2007 which committed the government to change approaches to waste prevention and disposal across the country.

The objective of the project is to identify and monitor six places to become exemplars of good environmental practice on all waste, according to Defra.

The results of the project will be used to create a report analysing the barriers and possible solutions to achieving a zero waste place for use by other authorities across the UK.

Between 2006 and 2008 the BREW Centre claims it funded projects that diverted 74,638 tonnes of waste from landfill and saved small to medium-sized businesses more than £9.4m through resource efficiency measures. Over the next five years these same projects will divert more than 372,000 tonnes from landfill and save businesses more than £47m, the organisation claims.