Friends Of The Earth Criticise Governments Pledge To Deliver A Zero Waste Policy

10 May 2011

In a recently published review, Friends of the Earth has claimed the coalition government's pledge to deliver a "zero waste economy" is being undermined by in-fighting, incoherence and antipathy, seeking to be viewed as "non-prescriptive"

With ongoing delayed legislation, "incoherence" between government departments and reluctance to set hard targets on recycling rates, Friends of the Earth review, entitled "The Greenest Government Ever: One Year On", claims there are "grave concerns" over how a zero waste economy could be achieved.

"The coalition government got off to a good start by cancelling outright a number of PFI mass-burn incinerator schemes on the grounds that they did not represent value for money," the report states. "Since then, Eric Pickles has reversed a number of decisions by local authorities against questionable 'energy for waste' [sic] schemes."

The campaign group added that over the tenure of the coalition government so far, a "new antipathy to setting targets" has developed, with the government seeking to be viewed as "non-prescriptive".

Friends of the Earth suggest the coalition has a fear of "telling people what to do" and that a lack of consultation over target-setting "does not bode well" for the likely contents of the forthcoming Waste Review.

There has already been indication that the waste review will include no centrally-set local authority recycling targets. The campaign group claims that the government has "made clear" that it will not be adding any further regulatory burden to businesses, claiming also that "fierce lobbying by the Department for Business, Industry and Skills has led Defra to not raise the targets for packaging waste.

This move is, according to Friends of the Earth, "highly regrettable" and stands to "weaken" the value of packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs).

For the full report visit http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/greenest_gvt_ever.pdf

Darrel Moore