VIDEO REPORT: Carole Taylor, chair of LARAC – the local authority recycling advisory committee – gives a local authority perspective on some of the key issues affecting the sector.
Carole Taylor, chair of LARAC, believes that recycling rates will not improve without more funding being directed towards local authorities.
Funds
In an interview with letsrecycle.com, Ms Taylor said: “We feel that unless there is more funds to local authorities we won’t be able to improve the household recycling rate.”
And, one way to address this would be through producer responsibility, she explains. “We want a compete overall of the producer responsibility scheme because we feel that councils shouldn’t be the ones having to pay for the packaging that is being recycled and we want more funds to help us to do that from the actual producers and users of the packaging.”
An interview with Carole Taylor, who took over as chair of LARAC in January
Ms Taylor’s comments come during her first year as chair of LARAC. She took over the position from previous chair, Andrew Bird, earlier this year. In her day job, she is waste and recycling co-ordinator for Pendle borough council.
“It’s been really busy so far since I started in January. As you know, we’ve got the forthcoming resources and waste strategy from Defra later this year, and so we’ve been attending a lot of workshops and background work to do with that.”
“It’s great to see so many dedicated waste management professionals in the industry,” she added.
Ms Taylor has been a member of the LARAC Executive since 2002 when she was first elected as the North West representative and is one of its longest standing members. The role of LARAC chair is limited to a maximum four-year term.
Recycling rates
Discussing ways of increasing recycling rates, Ms Taylor spoke about the need to direct more funding towards local authorities. Measures to increase funding for councils were put forward by LARAC in a report published earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Ms Taylor also spoke about the government’s plans for a deposit return scheme, which she said would ideally target on-the-go materials. “We don’t want a scheme that cannibalises the materials that are in councils’ kerbside collections schemes.”
The post Carole Taylor talks recycling and funding appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
