National Waste Strategy

The National Waste Strategy is a policy of the government of the United Kingdom, and in particular the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), intended to foster a move to sustainability in waste management within Great Britain.

Structure

The Environment Act 1995 added a requirement to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requiring the Secretary of State, as of 2008 the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to prepare a National Waste Strategy for England and Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, a Strategy for Scotland.^[1] The Strategy must include:^[2]

• A statement of policies for attaining the statutory objectives of the 1990 Act;
• Provisions relating to:
  • The type, quantity and origin of waste to be recovered or disposed of;
  • General technical requirements; and
  • Any special requirements for particular wastes.

The statutory objectives are:^[3]

• Ensuring that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment and, in particular, without:
  • Risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals;
  • Causing nuisance through noise or odours; or
  • Adversely affecting the countryside or places of special interest.
• Establishing an integrated and adequate network of waste disposal installations, taking account of the best available technology not involving excessive costs
• Ensuring that the network referred to above enables:
  • The European Community as a whole to become self-sufficient in waste disposal, and the Member States individually to move towards that aim, taking into account geographical circumstances or the need for specialised installations for certain types of waste; and
  • Waste to be disposed of in one of the nearest appropriate installations, by means of the most appropriate methods and technologies in order to ensure a high level of protection for the environment and public health.
• Encouraging the prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness, in particular by:
  • The development of clean technologies more sparing in their use of natural resources;
  • The technical development and marketing of products designed so as to make no contribution or to make the smallest possible contribution, by the nature of their manufacture, use or final disposal, to increasing the amount or harmfulness of waste and pollution hazards; and
  • The development of appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substances contained in waste destined for recovery.

WS2000

The first version of the Strategy for England was published on 25 May 2000.^[4] By 2007 Defra reported that:^[5]

• Recycling and composting of waste had nearly quadrupled since 1996-97, achieving 27% in 2005-06;
• The recycling of packaging waste had increased from 27% to 56% since 1998;
• Less waste is being landfilled, with a 9% fall between 2000–01 and 2004–05; and
• Waste growth was being reduced with local authority domestic and business waste collections growing much less quickly than the economy of the United Kingdom at 0.5% per year.

WS2007

The latest version of the Strategy for England was published in 2007. Its main proposals are to:^[5]

• Incentivise efforts to reduce, re-use, recycle waste and recover energy from waste;
• Reform regulation to drive the reduction of waste and diversion from landfill while reducing costs to compliant business and the regulatory agencies;
• Target action on materials, products and sectors with the greatest scope for improving environmental and economic outcomes;
• Stimulate investment in collection, recycling and recovery infrastructure, and markets for recovered materials that will maximise the value of materials and energy recovered; and
• Improve national, regional and local governance, with a clearer performance and institutional framework to deliver better coordinated action and services on the ground.

See also

• Waste in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• Waste and recycling: strategy and legislation at Defra (2008)