New package for tackling household waste

10 June 2009

The Government is to work with local authorities to ensure more types of packaging are collected for recycling under sweeping new plans to tackle packaging waste.

A new packaging strategy will address the whole chain from production to disposal of packaging, environment secretary Hilary Benn announced this week.

English local authorities will get advice from the Government and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on the use of income-sharing contracts in order to improve the quality of recyclates, which is ‘essential for UK reprocessors and for UK access to the export market’.

‘Getting a direct share of the value of recyclates provides an incentive for adapting collection and sorting systems towards higher quality outputs, with better revenues,’ the strategy states.

It urges councils to treat recycling as a source of potential revenue ‘rather than just a way of avoiding landfill tax’.

The Government will also consult on banning aluminium – among other materials – from landfill altogether.

Recycling rates for plastic, glass and aluminium will be targeted for improvement, requiring more ‘recycling on the go’ points in public places for drinks cans, and more glass collected for recycling from pubs, clubs and restaurants.

WRAP will also work closely with manufacturers and retailers to reduce their packaging for everyday products.

Announcing the strategy at the Futuresource conference in London this week, Benn said: ‘We need to rethink the way we deal with packaging, from production line to recycling bin.

‘In a few years time I want people to be able to shop without having to worry about what they’re going to do with the packaging when they get home, and where it will go.’

In a separate development, five projects have won government funding to demonstrate the benefits of anaerobic digestion. Biocycle South Shropshire, Blackmore Vale Dairies, GWE Biogas, Staples Vegetables, and United Utilities and National Grid will show the benefits across a range of industries.

Anaerobic digestion breaks down organic matter to produce renewable energy sources for heat, power and transport.
But speaking at Futuresource, the minister also acknowledged the importance of energy from waste plants in diverting waste from landfill. ‘We’re much smaller than other European countries in this area,’ he added.

• Making the most of packaging

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