May 17th, 2013
by Phillip Ward
Defra is reviewing WRAP – again. Although styled a funding review in reality it goes much wider.
The consultation paper acknowledges WRAP’s past achievements but goes on to ask a number of questions about priorities and the WRAP business model. Essentially these cover:
May 3rd, 2013
by Mike Brown
I owe Deborah Meaden a bit of an apology. In an article in February I cocked a snook at her comments that the key considerations about the Gloucestershire incinerator were aesthetic, when for me the central issues were long term availability of feedstock and whether the scale of the incinerator was consistent with maximising recycling.
April 26th, 2013
by Richard Vaughan
On 28th March the Environment Agency carried out a ‘day of action’ against waste crime, code named Operation Cyclone. Over 100 officers visited 60 sites suspected of carrying out illegal waste actions in the North East and South East regions of England. In addition to site visits, roadside stop and searches were carried out. In 2012 the Agency stopped a total of 1,135 illegal waste sites including closure, enforcement action or advice on changing practices to operate legally. It is encouraging that the Agency is taking waste crime so seriously and having a real impact. However the large number suggests that for many operators the rewards of working outside the law remain attractive.
April 9th, 2013
There can have been few judgements in the administrative court more cut and dried than that given by Mr Justice Hickinbottom in Cardiff last month. In his decision regarding whether the revised Waste Framework Directive (rWFD) had been correctly transposed through the Waste (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2012, he saw little of merit in the case made by the claimants, a group of materials reprocessors. Finding in favour of Defra and the Welsh Government, he concluded:
March 27th, 2013
by Peter Jones
The Budget last week offered little to excite the environmentally minded, as George Osborne produced no new green measures from his battered red box. One of the main talking points in the waste sector has been the absence of any clarification of what will happen to landfill tax after it reaches £80 in 2014/15. The Green Alliance advocates further increases, but the Environmental Services Association and various local authority representatives are looking for the escalator to stop. At the same time, the planned fuel escalator increase for September 2013 was cancelled.
