Speech by Joan Ruddock MP to the National Household Hazardous Waste Forum, Crawley - 27 February 2008
Thanks for the invitation. It’s good to be here and to have the opportunity to speak to you today.
I’d like to start by congratulating everyone in the forum on the very valuable role you’ve all played in promoting best practice in the arena of household hazardous waste.
I’d particularly like to highlight the “Haz-guide” you produced on the sustainable management of this waste stream. Something I was very happy to endorse. And an issue that the Government were only too pleased to promote in last year’s Waste Strategy. A strategy that built on the earlier Waste Strategy of 2000 but which I believe is more ambitious in addressing the challenges we face in the future.
The key drivers within the Waste Strategy are simple: less waste, more re-use and recycling, more energy from waste and much less landfill. All parts of society have a role to play in achieving this vision.
We are moving in the right direction thanks to the commitment and hard work of the many local authorities and ever more enthusiastic householders. Household waste recycling has quadrupled in the last ten years and doubled in the last 4. It now stands at just over 30%. Nine out of ten households have kerbside collections. And all waste collection authorities will have to collect at least two recyclable waste streams by 2010.
On a wider front, non-hazardous recyclable waste paper, plastic and metals is often exported outside the EU for recycling in other countries. Such waste is shipped in container ships that have come to the UK to deliver manufactured goods and which would otherwise return empty. The trade provides valuable business opportunities for countries with developing economies and because of the lower overheads in these countries, our recycling costs are kept down - a win-win situation.
However, poorly separated or contaminated waste cannot easily be recycled overseas. Recyclables for export need to be of a high standard so that they don’t require further processing abroad prior to recycling. We also need to remember that any of these countries can stop imports of UK waste unilaterally and with almost immediate effect under EC legislation, so the generation of high quality recyclables for export is vitally important to make sure these markets remain open to us.
What remains after recycling is also getting increasing attention. Taking food waste out of residual waste is very important. In the last financial year the amount of residual household waste was around 17.9 million tonnes – a fall of over 4% from the previous year. And we are moving towards our target of reducing the amount of household waste not reused, recycled or composted to 15.8 million tonnes by 2010.
But we clearly have an ongoing problem with fly-tipping. In 2006/07, around half of all fly-tips recorded by local authorities were made up of household waste – a rise of 10% on the previous year. But local authorities are making headway. We are currently reviewing the duty of care and looking to increase the awareness of these controls, which we hope will make it easier for local authorities and businesses to understand. The simple message to householders is that we are all responsible for the waste that we produce and a quick check of the tradesmen that we use could mean the difference between our old fridge being dumped in a field or disposed of properly and safely.
Half the population regard themselves as committed recyclers but they are often frustrated by waste they see as being beyond their control.
We need to place greater responsibility on businesses for the environmental impact of their products and operations through, for example, a drive to minimise packaging.
We have recently announced new packaging recovery and recycling targets, expected to save over 8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions this year alone. The targets will increase over the next two years, saving an extra quarter of a million tonnes of CO2 in 2009 and nearly three hundred thousand tonnes in 2010.
We also have voluntary agreements on recycling in sectors such as direct mail, newspapers and magazines and are looking to extend these.
It’s also important that we aim to extend recycling from the home and the office to public areas like shopping centres, train stations and cinema multiplexes, so that it becomes a natural part of everyday life, and we can capture those products such as aluminium cans that tend not to get returned home.
We’re looking to raise the overall packaging recovery target to 74% in 2010. We hope this will ensure that we meet our 2008 European Union Directive target of recycling at least 60% of our packaging waste and will help to meet our Waste Strategy objectives.
We are also taking powers in the Climate Change Bill for up to five local authorities in England to pilot waste incentive schemes. We will provide up to £1.5 million per year for three years to support pilots, although there is evidence that local authorities should eventually be able to make net savings from such schemes.
So we are doing a lot but we know more is required and it is important that we look at life through the lens of the consumer and develop strategies that are based on a thorough understanding of what it takes to produce sustained behaviour change. We otherwise risk bombarding people with a multiplicity of confusing and potentially de-motivating messages.
We have therefore developed a framework for environmental behaviours that draws together evidence on public understanding, attitudes and behaviour and applies this to the big consumption impacts of food and drink, personal travel, homes and household products and travel tourism. The framework, which you can find on the Defra web site, includes a set of principles and approaches for behaviour change and a segmentation model based on people’s attitudes towards the environment. Rather than thinking about wholesale lifestyle or culture change, our immediate priority should be to work within the grain of people’s motivation and current behaviours. There is much that can be done within current lifestyles, whether it is challenging wasteful behaviour, or Government and businesses ensuring that consumers are presented with the greenest products from which to make their purchasing choices.
Most people would like to be greener, so long as we – in Government and business – can make it easy and affordable.
Turning specifically to household hazardous waste. As you know this accounts for just 1-2% of all hazardous waste. It includes many items routinely disposed of from households such as batteries, chemicals, refrigeration equipment and computer monitors. The increase in recycling schemes for household waste generally may mean that residual fractions of the waste now contain higher concentrations of hazardous waste. Unless properly managed this could cause problems for the treatment and disposal of residual waste. What is more, many household hazardous wastes can be recycled and disposing of them in the mixed municipal waste collection is effectively throwing away resources that could be put to good use and contribute towards our goal of increasing sustainability.
It is clear that waste collection authorities are obliged under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste. While they are not obliged to collect hazardous waste separately, one of the objectives of our Strategy is to encourage local authorities to develop separate hazardous waste collection schemes and to publicise these services to householders in their area. It is further open to local authorities to use powers under section 46 of the 1990 Act to specify that items of hazardous waste may be disposed of in a particular way, such as in a separate container for kerbside collection. They also have powers under section 47 of the Act to specify the way in which waste is collected from commercial premises.
It is also that hazardous waste put out by householders for separate collection or delivered separately to a Recycling Centre is kept separate from other waste and taken to a facility that can deal with it.
The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 provide some help. The intention of these regulations is that where hazardous waste is put out by householders separately or delivered separately to a Household Waste Recycling Centre it must be kept separate from other wastes. It will then be subject to the consignment note and record keeping requirements of the Regulations once it reaches a bulking up point, disposal or recovery facility. There are therefore no requirements placed directly on the householder.
Some waste authorities have chosen to interpret the Regulations differently and there have been instances where separate items of hazardous waste have subsequently been mixed back into the mixed municipal waste collection. This is not what was intended. We are therefore planning to consult on small changes to the Regulations shortly, which will provide a definitive position on the way such waste should be managed under the Regulations. The message will be that once separate, hazardous waste should be kept separate, and dealt with accordingly.
So, in conclusion, we are making progress towards meeting the key Waste Strategy objectives of less waste, more re-use and recycling and much less landfill.
There is still a lot to do. But I’m an optimist at heart. I believe we can achieve our goals. But we can’t do it alone. It’s a partnership and if we tackle this issue at a national, regional and local level I believe we will succeed.
Thank you.
Page published: 7 March 2008