Waste not want not - States Assembly

4. BARRIERS TO MORE SUSTAINABLE WASTE
MANAGEMENT
Summary
A number of factors lie behind the absence of a more sustainable
approach to waste management in England:
●
historically, waste has not been an area of policy priority and there
has been a relative abundance of cheap landfill sites. This has
resulted in comparatively low levels of investment in waste
management;
●
there has been a lack of public awareness of the seriousness of the
waste problem alongside perceptions that new waste facilities of all
kinds may be damaging to health or have other disbenefits;
●
the economic and regulatory framework has offered few incentives
either for a reduced rate of growth in waste volumes or for
alternative methods of management and disposal (such as recycling);
●
delivery structures at both national and local level have been
complex, with insufficiently clear responsibilities and accountabilities
for delivering change; and
●
there have been various practical problems and barriers such as
delays in granting planning permissions for waste management
plants of all kinds.
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England has not needed to
invest in alternatives to landfill
because of its geology and
history
4.1 England’s reliance on landfill reflects its
geology and extraction industry history, which
have made suitable landfill sites relatively
abundant. This abundance of cheap landfill sites
has also meant that England, unlike many of its
European neighbours, has not needed to invest
to the same degree in alternative waste
management options.
4.2 However, England now needs to make a
substantial shift away from landfill to other
methods of waste disposal. This will require a
number of institutional and practical barriers set
out in this chapter to be overcome.