Member Article

Have Your Say On Recycling

North East residents are being urged to have their say on how waste is managed in England after it was revealed that households in the region pay £84 on average per year to have their waste collected, treated and disposed of. To tackle the growing problem of waste the Government has launched a new strategy for managing waste.

The latest figures for recycling by North East residents (for 2004/05) reveal that they are recycling just 16.4% of their household waste. The Government’s Waste Strategy 2000 set a target for 67% recovery of waste by 2015, with at least 33% composting and recycling. The revised strategy proposes the same overall target of 67% recovery target in 2015 but with much higher levels (45%) of recycling and composting. The revised strategy has drawn criticism from environmental groups who believe that the targets set by the Government “lack ambition”.

Campaign group Friends of the Earth labelled the strategy a “missed opportunity” on account of its “limited ambition for recycling.” Launching the three-month consultation on the revised strategy, Minister for Local Environment Quality, Ben Bradshaw said: “Fundamentally, the revised waste strategy is about reducing the environmental impact of waste: reducing the impact on climate change, conserving limited natural resources and reducing risk to health and the environment from potentially harmful substances in waste. “To achieve this, the revised waste strategy will offer a clearer, longer-term vision for waste and resource management, linked closely with our action plan on sustainable production and consumption. “It will also outline how we can work together to achieve this.

Therefore it will be vital for everyone in the North East - from householders and builders to supermarkets and banks - to have their say in the Strategy and how it will take us towards our goals.“ The consultation paper and accompanying Regulatory Impact Assessment and Environment Report are available from the Defra website at http://www.defra.gov.uk. Deadline for comments is 9 May 2006. To have your say in the consultation visit: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/review/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .