Waste policy needs to go ‘further and faster’

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has announced a review of waste policy in England, looking at the most effective ways of reducing waste, maximising the money to be made from waste and recycling, and how waste policies affect local communities and individual households.

Spelman said: "There is an economic and environmental urgency to developing the right waste strategy.

"We have been slowly moving in the right direction with recycling rates. The direction of travel is right – it's the pace that's the problem. We need to go faster and we need to go further."

The review will include:

• the effect of waste policies on local communities and individual households;
• maximising the contribution of the waste and recycling industries to the UK economically and environmentally;
• working towards a 'zero waste economy', looking at the entire process from source to end of life; and
• new approaches to dealing with commercial waste and promoting 'responsibility deals'

Spelman continued: "We need a new approach to waste – one which works for the new economy. We cannot keep putting recyclable and biodegradable material into landfill. It threatens the environment and wastes what are incredibly valuable natural resources.

"We have an unprecedented opportunity to create the green jobs, green growth, and take our share of the green jobs of the future."