Waste and resources management should be a central theme in the next government’s industrial and environment policies, according to the Trade Association Group (TAG), an umbrella organisation comprising the UK’s top waste and resource management companies and organisations.

The waste and resources management sector performs a crucial role in the UK economy, with an annual estimated turnover of £11 billion and 100,000 employed in the sector, and ensures that the huge amount of waste produced every day is handled and disposed of efficiently.

The TAG has the weight of some of the UK’s most influential waste and resource associations behind it, being formed of the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), the Environmental Services Association (ESA), the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Renewable Energy Association (REA), the Resource Association (RA) and the Wood Recyclers Associations (WRA).

In a statement released late last week, the group stressed outright the importance of embedding resource efficiency into forward-thinking strategies for industry and the environment, saying: ‘We believe that improvements in resource efficiency – the way in which materials, energy, and water are used in the UK economy – should be a central theme in the next government’s industrial and environmental policies and strategies.’

The issues that the group states are an urgent priority for any incoming government to tackle are as follows:

• Set out a long-term policy framework for waste and resource management, building on existing European waste and resource legislation and instilling industry with confidence to invest in vital infrastructure;
• Take action to reverse declining recycling rates, through preventing food waste, increasing separate food waste collections when this cannot be achieved, and increasing demand for secondary materials; and
• Tackling waste crime, which costs the UK economy around £600 million a year, and is a blight on communities and the environment.

Making priorities clear

The latest call from the resources and waste management sector for the next government to ensure that resource efficiency is given precedence in future industrial and environmental policy follows other pleas from within the sector released after Theresa May’s decision to hold a snap election on 8 June.

Last month (26 April), CIWM published a Resource Productivity Manifesto, calling for all political parties to embed resource productivity and efficiency in their political programmes for Britain. The document underlined the resource and waste management’s contribution to the UK economy, and called for action on environmental standards, resource productivity and a clear national waste strategy. CIWM affirms that efficient resource management can play a crucial role in future economic development through job creation and skills training for a low carbon economy.

Following CIWM’s intervention, the RA and the ESA both released manifestos detailing their priorities for the next government on 4 May. The RA’s ‘Manifesto for Resources 2017’ called on political parties to commit to the transition to the circular economy, outlining ten steps to achieve this, while also challenging the next government to clearly signal its ambition regarding the circular economy, protect and maintain existing environmental standards, place high-quality recycling at the heart of resources policy, and champion the circular economy and the role of the resources sector within it.

Finally, the ESA’s ‘Resourceful’ waste and resources manifesto laid out four key policy recommendations for building a strong resource economy. The recommendations include transferring resource ownership from the public sector to product supply chains by reforming Extended Producer Ownership, building resilient recycling and recovery markets by stimulating demand for secondary raw materials, realising economies of scale through greater joint working, and driving waste crime out of the waste and resources sector.

What the parties say

All the major political parties have now released their manifestos and the sprint to the finish line has begun ahead of polling day on Thursday (8 June). Manifesto pledges from the main political parties have been typically light on explicit commitments relating to the waste and resources sector.

The Liberal Democrats were the most forthcoming on their plans for waste and resources, making explicit commitments on waste and resource use, promising to move towards a circular economy through the introduction of a Zero Waste act and a 70 per cent statutory waste recycling target in England.

The Green Party’s Environment Manifesto promised to create a new Environmental Protection Act to enshrine EU regulations in UK law and decarbonizing the UK’s energy sector, while pledging to reduce plastic waste through a bottle deposit scheme, free public water dispensers and community refill schemes, and a ban on unnecessary single-use plastics.

Labour’s manifesto, meanwhile, commits to a low carbon economy with a specific pledge to look at introducing a bottle deposit scheme and working with packaging manufacturers to reduce waste.

Finally, the Conservatives’ and UKIP’s manifestos were light on environmental pledges, particularly regarding the resources sector, with the Conservatives supporting better packaging and rubbish collection, while UKIP will investigate bringing in a bottle deposit scheme to tackle plastic waste.

Representatives from the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party came together last week (30 May) to participate in a debate hosted by Greener UK to discuss their plans for the environment, although resources and waste were only mentioned once, when Resources Minister Therese Coffey said that the Conservatives were looking at reviewing the way that recycling rates are calculated (currently weight-based).

VOTE!

With only three days to go until the public makes its choice over what kind of Britain it wants to live in and which vision for the country it finds most convincing, here at Resource we have tried to lay out as best as possible the parties’ different stances on the waste and resources sector and what the future holds for the industry.

You can find each manifesto and the priorities from within the sector on the Resource news site to help you to make your decision.