Manifesto destiny: waste policy in the 2015 election

A few weeks ago I was asked by MRW if I would provide some comments on what waste-related policies we might expect to see in the manifestos of the major political parties as we move towards the 2015 general election. This is what I wrote:

“Through a deep recession and slow recovery, the environment has seemed to be relegated to the back seat whilst the economy has driven policy. The next government needs to give more thought to waste and resources. As recycling rates flat-line, the need to reach the Waste Framework Directive’s 50% target by 2020 should start to focus minds; if not, the higher targets the Commission is now discussing for future years certainly will.

We need, and may get, some proper funding to enforce against waste crime. I’d love – but don’t expect – to see one of the major parties backing a move towards “pay as you throw” for household waste. All of the indications are that a price incentive is needed to help motivate householders to recycle more. Whoever governs Britain, we can expect to see economic pressures and recycling targets push more councils towards fortnightly or even three-weekly domestic refuse collections.

The continued public sector finance squeeze will continue to have an effect, with councils ever-more reluctant to be locked into long-term expensive residual treatment deals. Strained budgets could also lead to reduced street cleansing spend, so we need a greater emphasis on preventing litter, further motivated by growing awareness of the proliferation of plastic litter in our oceans. England’s carrier bag charge will come into force in 2015, and could trigger further litter-busting measures. Given the affection with which bottle deposits are regarded, don’t be surprised if deposit refund schemes start to gain traction, at least on beverage containers.”

Don’t let your vote go to waste. Photo by Basher Eyre, via Wikimedia Commons.

As I’ve continued to think about the subject, I realise that waste is a particularly interesting area for election futurology as it highlights some of the core areas of debate in British society, which brook a good deal of further discussion. The issues are probably too deep and contentious to be unravelled in a single short blog article, but I hope that by highlighting three here, I might be able to stimulate debate about them in the waste sector so that we can start influencing the agenda in the run up to the election:

• Since so much waste law has its roots in European directives and targets – and since there seems to be quite an overlap between Euro-sceptics and what we might call ‘Enviro-sceptics’ – it’s a touchstone for the nature of Britain’s relationship with Europe. As the Commission looks to push further ahead with recycling targets and the circular economy, how far will these issues come to suffer from ‘guilt by association’, making them harder for any party – especially those pushing to win seats in England – to give their support to these issues?
• The delivery of so much of our waste collection is carried out by local authorities, who are being pressed to meet more challenging targets and respond to new requirements regarding separate collection at the same time as they are facing the deepest cuts to their budgets any current officers will have experienced. The public rightly expects high quality, responsive services, but how far can these continue to be delivered given the financial pressures that councils are under?
• All parties want to be seen as making Britain an attractive place to do business, part of which is often understood to mean making sure that the taxes on businesses are kept low. In the field of waste, this tends to insulate the companies that put products on the market from the costs of managing the resulting waste. This of course limits the incentive they have to invest in production practices and business models that help to minimise waste, inhibiting progress towards a circular economy. But if we attempt to transfer these costs back to business, is that likely to be detrimental to achieving the holy grail of growth?

Of course, there’s much more to discuss, and many more months in which to do so before the manifestos come out. The most important thing, though, is that at some level the major parties should address these topics. Waste and resource management touches both business and consumers on a daily basis and as such it should surely be seen as good election fodder – the worst result of all for the waste sector is that it is forgotten about as the fur flies on the traditional topics of education, the NHS and the state of the economy in the run up to next May. It’s up to all of us working in the sector to make sure that doesn’t happen.