Waste not want not - States Assembly

Box 11: Scenario 1 – Do nothing – how England might look in 2015
● waste growth has continued unabated and waste costs have increased by 70%;
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the number of landfill sites has increased by over 100 from 2002; there have been widespread
protests about the shipping of waste from areas where there is little landfill available like the
South East to the north of the country;
England’s household recycling rate has continued to rise at only 1% per year and is just under
25% – the target originally set in 1990 for the year 2000. Other EU nations such as Holland
and Germany have recycling rates around 60%;
England has failed to meet the Landfill Directive in both 2010 and 2013 and the UK is
currently suffering its fourth year of EU fines. These fines now come to just over £700 million.
EU nations who have adopted sustainable waste management are losing patience with the UK;
attempts to meet the 2020 Landfill Directive by a massive increase in incineration are meeting
with resistance in some areas;
England’s reliance on landfill is causing problems for wider waste management as new EU
regulations influenced by nations with lower waste growth, higher recycling and more
advanced waste management options, hit the country harder;
industry too has been suffering under tighter waste regulation. Failure to invest in lean
manufacturing and alternative waste management methods has undermined productivity and
is now requiring a large programme of costly investment to meet new EU regulations;
a MORI Poll shows that most people see waste as a government problem and say that
recycling is too difficult due to lack of investment in new recycling facilities. Discussion of the
options has not taken place, awareness remains low, and NIMBYism 72 has increased;
England now faces a larger and more costly challenge to try and catch up with nations whose
waste management is now 20-30 years in front of that of England; and
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the UK remains at the bottom of the European waste management league.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
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NIMBY= Not in My Backyard. An increasingly common way of expressing people’s growing reluctance to having certain structures in
their neighbourhoods
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