Viridor’s head of public affairs, Martin Grey, has praised Scotland’s circular economy approach as creating an environment which encourages future investment. And, the company’s director of regulatory affairs, Dan Cooke, has told an English audience that in order to achieve real progress the industry needs recognition of shared cross-sector goals and challenges.
Mr Grey’s message came when he addressed a session of the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee last week.
Viridor’s head of public affairs, Martin Grey, addressed a session of the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
The committee, chaired by nationalist Graeme Day MSP and former Zero Waste Scotland manager, now Conservative MSP, Maurice Golden, held a one-day inquiry into progress on Scottish Government’s circular economy strategy – ‘Making Things Last’ which was published in 2016.
‘success story’
Mr Grey told the committee: “Scottish Government’s globally ambitious circular economy strategy is a real success story, focused on not just environmental obligation, but on economic opportunity.
“Scotland is punching above its weight on the world stage and it’s that leadership, policy and regulatory stability, which has driven Viridor’s investments across Scotland, creating jobs and economic opportunities.
He continued: “Scottish policy is progressive, focused firmly on waste reduction, reuse, enhanced recycling (a target of 70% by 2025) and recovering energy in Scotland from what remains.
“More than that, it’s focused on sector calls for standardisation, aggregation and material quality which aligned with innovation and collaboration, will be real drivers for that next generation of investment and further moves towards the economic opportunity of circularity.”
“Scotland is punching above its weight on the world stage and it’s that leadership, policy and regulatory stability, which has driven Viridor’s investments across Scotland, creating jobs and economic opportunities.”
Martin Grey
Viridor
This focus was illustrated in the Scottish Household Charter, which aims to standardise collections across Scotland’s 32 local authorities, said Mr Grey.
And he highlighted the Material Recycling Facility (MRF) Code of Practice, which would increase transparency on the quality of materials collected by councils across Scotland; and, the Scottish Materials Brokerage Service, which Zero Waste Scotland describes as a “one-stop-shop” for Scotland’s reprocessing sector.
Investment
In terms of Viridor’s investment in Scotland, he cited an advanced glass recycling hub, developed at Newhouse, North Lanarkshire which is making a ‘significant contribution’ to boosting the sustainability of the UK’s No 2 export, Scotch Whisky.
Mr Grey said that the last 10 years were about investment in rolling-out recycling services and infrastructure. And, the next challenge was creating an environment which encouraged investment in next generation Scottish infrastructure.
The committee accepted an offer from Mr Grey to visit Viridor’s £11m Bargeddie Recycling Hub, opened in 2009.
In England last week another senior member of the Viridor team, addressed an audience on sector issues.
Dan Cooke, the company’s director of regulatory affairs said closer collaboration is needed to achieve real progress beyond 50% recycling rate.
He was speaking at the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (CIWM) Resourcing the Future conference on June 27 where he called for “recognition of shared cross-sector goals and challenges, and a shared risk and responsibility from producers, packagers, retails, recyclers and reprocessors.”
(l-r) Julie Hill, chair of WRAP and Viridor’s director of regulatory affairs, Dan Cooke
‘continued focus’
Mr Cooke said that, while the industry was seeing positive progress through cross sector initiatives, “finding new ways of working will be complex, especially without clearer policy, regulation or economic drivers”.
He added: “A continued focus on corporate social responsibility and increasingly on greater ‘circularity’ within leading businesses and organisations, as well as the wider economy, and higher levels of scrutiny and engagement from customers via social media creates a need to demonstrate progress in better recycling and more sustainable corporate behaviours.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
