Summary
Every year some 330 million tonnes of waste are produced in the UK. The direct costs of managing this waste - £2.5 billion annually for English household waste alone - are dwarfed by the costs of using new resources to replace discarded materials.
'Waste Strategy for England 2007' (HC 230-I) recommends that the Government should, as a priority, set out a timetable with significantly raised targets for reducing the total amount of waste produced.
The waste strategy focuses disproportionately on domestic waste, which contributes less than 10% of all waste, while omitting firm targets for the commercial and industrial sectors which produce around a quarter of all waste. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) must rectify this urgently.
Funding cuts to services designed to help businesses manage their waste well are premature and should be re-evaluated and ways to extend such services to a wider range of organisations should be considered. Far too small a proportion of waste is re-used, recycled, composted or used to produce energy.
Nearly half of all waste is still sent to landfill sites where it contributes to climate change, producing 3% of the country's greenhouse gases and 40% of its methane emissions.
The Committee notes the so-called 'Primark effect' which has led to large increases in the amount of clothing sent to landfill sites. Food waste is another significant component of waste sent to landfill sites and householders, food producers and retailers need to do more to reduce the amount of food discarded unnecessarily.
Waste should only be used for energy recovery if it is not possible to re-use, recycle or compost it.
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