A Defra official has revealed that the department is currently looking into whether council contracts can be renegotiated in order to meet the ambitions set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Melanie Foster, senior official at Defra, was answering questions during the London Conference near Euston yesterday (4 March), facilitated by LWARB – the London Waste and Recycling Board.
Melanie Foster, senior official at Defra, gave an overview of Defra’s consultations at the London Conference this week
Concerns were raised by one audience member over how some councils will be able to move to a more ‘consistent’ collection systems – one of the core pillars of the Strategy – while they are locked in to long-term agreements with contractors.
Contracts
In response Ms Foster said: “We are aware of that issue and obviously if there are contracts you can’t get out of then that would impact on the abilities for local authorities to comply with any sort of requirements in terms of the core set of materials that can be collected.
“What I can say is that we are looking into that at the moment around whether the contracts can be renegotiated, so we haven’t got the answer yet but it’s something that we’re currently working on.”
Ms Foster was giving an overview of Defra’s Resources and Waste Strategy consultations, launched in February (see letsrecycle.com story). She covered the main topics discussed in the three consultations on packaging producer responsibility, consistency in collection and a deposit return scheme (DRS).
Following her presentation, Ms Foster was also quizzed over how local authority recycling rates may be impacted by the loss of tonnage due to materials being taken out of kerbside collections by a deposit return scheme. The Defra official said that the issue had been recognised but was unable to comment further.
And, Ms Foster outlined the aim for the proposals in the strategy to increase recycling infrastructure in the UK.
“The Defra policies as well as the Treasury tax is around trying to build infrastructure domestically and we obviously export a lot of recyclable material at the moment. And, we’re looking to drive up domestic recycling so whether that can influence the price and the ability to get a better value for the recycled material – that’s the ultimate aim.”
‘Crossroads’
Also speaking during the first session of the conference was Liz Goodwin, chair of LWARB.
Chair of LWARB, Dr Liz Goodwin, described that waste industry as being at a ‘crossroads’
Commenting on the Strategy’s potential to increase domestic recycling, Dr Goodwin added: “If the retailers actually take on board the extended producer responsibility and demand recycled content in all their packaging then we have a very good source of that recycled content.”
During her keynote address, Dr Goodwin described the waste industry as being at a “crossroads”.
Addressing an audience of London authorities, Dr Goodwin said: “We’ve got a long way to go to meeting the targets and the aspirations set by the central government and by the Mayor. So today’s conference is actually at a very important time for the for the waste and resources industry.”
“It actually feels like we’ve reached a bit of a cross roads, with exciting opportunities, especially with the recently released consultations.”
The session also heard from Shirley Rodrigues, deputy mayor for the environment, and Councillor Clyde Loakes, deputy leader at the London borough of Waltham, who gave a London local authority perspective (see letsrecycle.com story).
The post Defra looks at Strategy impact on council contracts appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
