LAWR

COMMENT 4 Local Authority Waste & Recycling November 2014 What a difference a year makes! It has been exactly a year since Dan Rogerson wrote a letter to the resource management industry stating that Defra would "be stepping back in areas where businesses are better placed to act and there is no clear market failure". Last November, he wrote: "Defra will therefore not have the capacity to take forward new policy work in areas such as commercial and industrial waste and construction and demo- lition waste, as well as proactive energy-from-waste policy development." The industry expressed disappointment over the letter. One year on from 'that letter' we look at the legacy impacts (see page 10). In fact, only a few new announcements have come out since Rogerson's letter was published. This is a far cry from the barrage of new announcements that came from Defra when I first started working in the industry in 2007. For instance, the Waste Strategy for England released in May 2007 which proposed looking at controversial 'pay-as-you-throw' schemes. The Waste Strategy put greater emphasis on waste preven- tion and set a new target to reduce the amount of household waste not reused, recycled or composted. It set a household recycling target of 45% by 2015 and 50% by 2020. When Defra published its strategy, it underlined that these targets were significantly higher than the old targets (set in Waste Strategy 2000) of 30% by 2010 and 33% by 2015, and claimed they would "take England up on a par with its European neigh- bours". This now sounds rather dated in the light of the EU's recent plans for more ambitious targets. Key proposals within the document also included plans to reform regulation to divert waste from landfill and target action on materials with the greatest scope for improving environ- mental outcomes. Some of these actions have been achieved. Household waste recycling rates are up from 12% in 2001 to more than 40% in 2012. The amount of waste going to landfill is decreasing. However, as a nation we are still throwing away approxi- mately seven million tonnes of food and drink from our homes every year, the majority of which could have been eaten, according to WRAP. It's costing us £12.5bn a year and is bad for the environment too. The issue of food waste remains a hot topic. We take a look at this rich resource and Keith Riley gives us a sneak peek at a new technology aiming to positively engage the public with food waste collections (pages 14-15). Enjoy! Liz Gyekye, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @LAWR_editor

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