CIWM chief executive Steve Lee comments: ‘There needs to be a next stage to building the strategy. It must involve input from those who will have to deliver it.’

CIWM says that the establishment of an effective SWPB will be pivotal to achieving the Strategy. However, the Strategy or resulting action plan needs to make clear the precise scope of the SWPB’s co-ordinating role. This could potentially include:

• developing statements of national and regional waste/resource management need;
• scrutinising, evaluating and reporting on strategies and plans and their ability to satisfy objectives;
• overseeing funding and performance of waste programmes such as BREW, WIP and the data strategy;
• monitoring national strategies and plans for effectiveness and relevance;
• proposing and controlling any further discretionary spending /funding;
• monitoring progress in meeting targets.

There also needs to be clarity on the membership of the SWPB; CIWM recommends that this should be extended beyond government departments and agencies to include representatives of the industries who will have to deliver the Strategy.

CIWM welcomes the indicated broader Stategy scope to include all wastes rather than just municipal waste. EU Member States with good waste management performance commonly have integrated municipal, commercial and industrial wastes strategies and infrastructure.  Given the importance of this development and the complexity of introducing the necessary infrastructure, this would need to be an early SWPB priority.

CIWM also stresses the need for early clarification of the requirement to pre-treat all waste before residues can be landfilled, as laid down by the EU Landfill Directive and due for implementation in 2007. This requirement can be interpreted and implemented in many ways. Pre-treatment standards need to be adopted and applied consistently throughout the UK to avoid distortion of markets and unnecessary waste transportation. Necessary infrastructure and services also need to be in place.

To meet 2010 and 2013 Landfill Directive targets, biodegradable municipal solid waste will also need early attention under the Strategy and action plan. CIWM believes that key actions should include encouraging greater partnership between public and private sectors, and between individual local authorities.

Another key aspect of meeting these targets is having the funding needed to put appropriate infrastructure and services in place. Experience elsewhere in Europe shows that direct funding through local taxation/incentive based charges helps in the delivery of such requirements, so CIWM would like to see this issue considered within the Strategy development process.

CIWM also believes that the Strategy should seek to move forward directly or influence a number of other key areas:

• Skills needs –  an increasingly complex sector with a greater variety of technologies will need a larger and better skilled workforce across the board.
• Health and safety – more complex waste management processes also have health and safety implications. The Strategy needs to recognise the importance of protecting the employees and public involved.
• Public sector resources – ability to deliver the Strategy will depend on appropriately resourced local authorities, government departments and regulators.
• Planning – despite the introduction of Planning Policy Statement 10, many CIWM members believe that the planning system is still a major barrier to progress. Many decisions to shape the future of this industry must be taken in the next 3 to 5 years while the new planning system under PPS 10 is still bedding in.
• Communications – effective implementation of the Waste Strategy will also be dependent on awareness and attitudes in businesses, national and local government and amongst the general public. A comprehensive and sustained communications strategy is needed to highlight, for example, the importance of: reducing waste through everything from product design to purchaser choice; re-use and recycling; the need to plan for treatment and disposal of residues.

CIWM chief executive Steve Lee commented: ‘General policy directions have to be turned into a more detailed action plan under which investment in facilities, services and skills can be made.  Effective real-time management will be the key to achieving high level and long-term objectives. And good communications and co-ordination between government departments and agencies - coupled with effective liaison with those working in the sector - will be essential to delivering this strategy.’

The full CIWM response is available to view at www.ciwm.co.uk/pma/2224