At Doncaster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday the 7^th of May, Wykeham Estates (Northern Ltd) were fined £3,000.00 and ordered to pay costs of £5,500.00; additionally the Judge gave them an order under Regulation 44 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations for Wykeham Estates to remove the waste to a lawful disposal facility within eight months.

Westmoreland Waste Recycling and Bolland Skip services Ltd also fined and ordered to pay £5,500.00 in costs.  It was revealed that the Environment Agency started investigations at the Hurst Plantation site in May 2011, therefore when members from the Environment Agency’s Environmental Crime Team visited the site they discovered that approximately 1,350 tonnes of waste had been unlawfully disposed of.

It has been reported that the Environment Agency also found a dirt track which had been turned into a road laying three of four feet above ground level; it appeared to me made up of soil, plastic containers, tarmac and waste metal as well as house bricks, breeze blocks and general demolition waste which was later found to contain asbestos.

It was said that the illegal waste activities were on-going between July and November 2011, the court was informed after further visits and investigations relating to the site and it also showed the involvement of the three companies.

During sentencing, District Judge Bennett stated how Parliament has made the Environmental Permitting Regulations to protect the environment and that the £50,000 statutory maximum fine in the Magistrates’ Court demonstrates how seriously environmental crime is to be treated.

He added that this was a reckless breach of the law by Wykeham Estates with the potential to cause environmental harm and that as both Bolland and Westmoreland have been in the waste industry for a long time, they should have been aware of the legal requirements.

Following the case, an Environment Agency Officer in charge of the investigation, said:

“Illegal waste sites and in this case, where asbestos and other harmful contaminants were found in the waste, has the potential to cause serious pollution incidents or harm human health.

“This prosecution demonstrates that we take waste crime very seriously and will not hesitate to prosecute if necessary, to protect the environment and local communities.”

Sources:

Work Place LawEnvironment Agency

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Our services for the Construction sector include:

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Local Audit and Accountability Bills are to be introduced by the government, which will extend referendum provision introduced in the 2011 Localism Act. It should allow local taxpayers to veto excessive council tax rises by unelected local quangos such as Waste Disposal Authorities, Integrated Transport Authorities, Pension Authorities and Internal Drainage Boards.

The Queen addressed Parliament about the legislative programme for government,  and the announcement of the Bill comes just a few months after Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, hit out at the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority for pushing up council tax rates in the area due to what he called a ‘botched PFI deal’.

This bill follows up on the government’s commitment to close the local government watchdog, namely the Audit Commission. Alongside the Queens speech a briefing paper was published which explained that the Bill would ‘close the Audit Commission, make new arrangements for the audit of local public bodies and increase local accountability’.

Deregulation

The Queen’s speech also sets out the Government’s legislative programme, the government set out plans for a new Deregulation Bill to ‘reduce the burden of unnecessary legislation on firms looking to grow.’

The government explained that the main benefits of the Bill would be to reduce or remove burdens on businesses and Civil Society and facilitate growth; reduce or remove burdens on public bodies, the taxpayer or individuals; and, to tidy up the statute book by repealing legislation that is no longer of any practical use.

References:

Queen’s Speech 2013

Let’s Recycle

According to CIWEM there is too much focus on the waste at the end of life, they believe that the Government need to acknowledge that the efficient and environmentally responsible use of materials must be independent of whether they are raw materials, products or waste.

CIWEM responded to Defra’s call for more evidence on the Waste Prevention Programme for England by calling for more action to be taken further up the supply chain, as well as the removal of perverse incentives that actually encourage waste.

Referring to its recently published report on waste prevention, CIWEM advocated that the Government should make use of the Waste Prevention Programme to look widely at resource issues rather than specific waste streams.

The response by CIWEM highlighted that this not solely an issue for the waste management industry and that the local authorities cannot continue to independently manage waste.

With seventy percent of wasted materials and energy during extraction and production, CIWEM urged Government to ask more from businesses, who currently have full authority to supply products with no environmental responsibility for their impact.

CIWEM said that more must be done to prevent waste by design; and held that both businesses and the Government have a role in making the sustainable option the default choice for consumers.

Nick Reeves OBE, CIWEM Executive Director, said:

 “We live on a finite planet; our wastefulness cannot continue. This is our big opportunity to drive a new path to a more efficient, circular economy that will preserve our natural environment and define a more resourceful, resilient society. Government must take the lead and do all it can to ensure that waste is minimised and bad behaviour changed for good.”

References:

Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management

Waste Prevention Plan

In the UK, each household produces over 1 tonne of rubbish every year. This amounts to around 31 million tonnes of rubbish produced per year in the UK alone.

Commercial and industrial businesses produce about one quarter of all waste in the UK. This is a drain on the economy which could be improved if companies made products using fewer natural resources thus reducing the cost of waste treatment and waste disposal.

In 2010 a survey of commercial and industrial waste arisings was conducted to provide estimates of the amount of waste that businesses generate and how it is managed in England for the year 2009.

In the findings, it was estimated that commercial and industrial waste generation in 2009 equated to over 47.9 million tonnes. Within this bracket, the small organisations alone (between 0-49 employees) produced 16.6 million tonnes of waste.

Combining the domestic waste with the commercial and industrial figures presents an alarming picture and a clear indicator as to why it is so crucial that waste be managed correctly in order to have minimal impact upon the environment. In order to address the issues presented by waste, it is important understand the processes and the opportunities that lie within them.

Download the full article here:

We work with suppliers and clients to reduce, re-use, recycle or recover waste, which in turn ensures diversion from landfill.

Our Waste Management Infographic simplifies waste collection and recycling processes. It shows the journey for waste from collection, through the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) illustrating how revenue opportunities can be achieved by commoditising recycled materials. Click here to download the Infographic.

Tony Mottram, Commercial Director at GPT Waste said:

“Waste is becoming the fourth utility; landfill disposal isn’t necessary or fashionable. Organisations are segregating waste on site which is then being managed through facilities such as MRFs. It’s worth noting that there is a battle for tonnage to provide feedstock for non-landfill disposal routes. Yet manufacturers are still disposing of by-products and secondary products as traditional waste streams, which could be valuable commodities to other manufacturing organisations.”

He went on to say:

“We work with clients to help reduce and manage waste efficiently in turn diverting waste from Landfill. Our approach is to identify more efficient ways of managing existing waste streams and to simplify the process. The next step is to then identify the most sustainable route of recovery or disposal. It is a simple approach but all ‘waste’ has a direct or indirect value to the organisation creating it or the one involved in its disposal, the challenge is to recognise this.”

GPT Waste offers a basic Waste Review Service free of charge.  Find out how we can help your business deal more effectively with your waste:

www.gptwaste.com

For further information about the waste management services available to avoid landfill, we have a number of case studies showcasing recent projects.

For more information about our services call is on 0844 854 5000 or visit our website.

Whilst they are not a formal alliance they work closely with partners in the third sector, business and other spaces, therefore their latest document namely, why we need landfill bans,  is something worth noting.

Landfill bans are important for a number of reasons, according to economic theory raw materials in products should be valuable enough to keep them out of landfill, however, many of the products containing valuable materials are being thrown away.

The concept of making things which contain valuable raw materials in order to ensure they last for years is therefore no longer making sense, because we are putting it back into the ground again.

Broken products contain valuable materials, which should be worth enough to keep them out of landfill but too many are still ending up in landfill. The main reason for this is because these products have been difficult to collect and difficult to recycle, therefore resulting in a pattern where we continue to lose the resources inside them.

By taking away the easy option, landfill bans encourage better collection systems and create economies of scale which brings down the cost of recycling. Preventing textiles, food, wood and plastics from going to landfill would keep at least £2.5 billion worth of resources in the economy, and avoid £1 billion in landfill costs.

WEEE regulations resulted in the UK recovering 25% of mobile phones from landfill in 2010, in the future this could mean that 80% of mobile phones recovered from landfill will keep £13m of value in the economy each year.

By 2015, 95% of all cars in the UK will be diverted from landfill, saving £58m per year.  It shows that landfill bans work for cars and technology why not increase the saving by extending the bans.  The document identifies that £2.5bn of resources could be recovered each year by extending landfill restrictions similar to those applied to cars and waste electronics to food, textiles, wood, and plastics

If you would like further information about Green Alliance or the document on why we need landfill bans, please visit their website www.green-alliance.org.uk.

For further information about the waste management services available to avoid landfill, GPT Waste Management has a number of case studies showcasing their projects.

For more information about our services call is on 0844 854 5000 or visit our website.

Please add your comments on landfill bans below, or join in our discussions on Twitter.

A latest report published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggests that due to a combination of urbanisation, environmental regulation and the impending resource shortages the global waste industry could be in for a major expansion.

The published report, No time to waste – global waste primer, calculated that the global waste, including municipal and industrial waste management, recycling, waste-to-energy and sustainable packaging, is currently worth $1tn a year (more or less £625bn).

It also suggests that there is the potential for the market to double in size in just seven years’ time, with a wide range of demographic, environmental, regulatory and commercial factors driving investments right across the sector.

The report notes:

“We believe that the global dynamics of waste management mean that the sector offers numerous growth opportunities for those with exposure to the value chain.”

“By 2020, we estimate that the waste industry could be worth up to $2tn, with Europe facing the toughest strategic challenges, and Asia and South America seeing the fastest growth. We see opportunities across waste management, industrial treatment, WtE (waste-to-energy), wastewater and sewage, E&C (engineering and consulting), recycling and sustainable packaging among other areas.”

There is a large and expanding market for waste management firms to exploit, according to the report, it notes that currently only a quarter of the 11billion tonnes of waste that is collected each year is recycled or reused, whilst 3.5bn people globally still haven’t got the basic waste management services.

Meanwhile, the expansion of the middle class in emerging markets such as China and Brazil means that waste volumes are growing faster than both GDP and urbanisation rates, and are projected to double by 2025 against 2005 levels.

The overall result of this is a looming environmental health crisis, mounting concerns about the depletion of scarce resources and an enormous commercial opportunity for the waste industry.

“We are seeing a shift away from waste as a mandatory public service to waste management as a sustainable business opportunity,” the report states.

“We see the fastest growth in the next decade coming from diversion, recycling, and recovery of valuable secondary raw materials, waste-to-energy, e-waste and sustainable packaging – as well as from emerging markets. We see considerable low hanging fruit potential given that 70 per cent plus of global waste is currently landfilled. ‘Greening’ waste management will require increasing MSW recycling by a factor of 3.5 times and doubling industrial waste recycling.”

The report also highlights some of the stocks that are likely to benefit from these trends over the next seven years, arguing that:

“Although it is difficult to accurately gauge the link between such exposure and share price performance (as many factors outside the scope of this analysis are likely to play a role in short- and long-term price development), we still consider waste-related exposure an important and positive point to track given that waste is a sustainability megatrend with a 25-50-year lifespan.”

References:

Business Green

A press release published by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management’s (CIWEM) says that although the government’s ‘zero waste’ economy objective is very desirable it is unrealistic; the responsibility for waste needs to be moved up the supply chain and waste by design needs to come to a halt.

The latest report challenges the government to ensure that everyone takes responsibility for waste, not just the waste management sector.

The revised EU Waste Framework Directive requires all Member States to produce waste prevention programmes by the end of 2013. This report aims to assist in the production of England’s waste prevention programme and also raise greater awareness that it is not solely an issue for the waste management industry.

According to the report, in the next two decades, up to three billion people are expected to join the global middle class, coinciding with a 30% rise demand for oil, coal, iron ore and other natural resources in just half that time.

CIWEM advocates that an integrated, life-cycle approach would help to preserve natural capital, reduce externalities and increase efficiency.  Defra shouldn’t bear sole responsibility for this says CIWEM; high profile, cross-government actions from the departments of DECC, DCLG, BIS and the Treasury will be required to make the UK’s economy and society one of the most resource efficient in the world.

Advocating that this is not solely an issue for the waste management industry, the report encourages to Government to ask more from businesses, who currently have full authority to supply products with no environmental responsibility for their impact.  By looking at materials at the beginning of the production process, there is the potential to prevent waste by design.

“Leading businesses have shown that is it possible to undertake circular activities across the supply chain. The circular economy, like energy security and resource efficiency all makes clear business sense.  We now need to translate and mainstream this ambition throughout the public sector to SMEs and to the wider public.”

CIWEM’s Executive Director, Nick Reeves OBE, says:

“Brave, ambitious and innovative political decision is a must if we are to keep our resource priorities down.  We welcome the shadow waste and water minister’s recent proposal for an ‘Office for Resource Security’ and pledge to join up policy and drive action across Whitehall.  This support for the circular economy is a step in the right direction.  We need to stop measuring success by the balance sheet and get a proper fix on our place in a world that is running on empty.”  

The report suggests that by tackling waste prevention we can take a holistic approach to:

• resource efficiency – material, labour and energy savings
• resource security – protection against price volatility and imbalances in supply, protection against economic, social and geopolitical risk
• reducing environmental externalities – greenhouse gas emissions, water use, land use, energy use, embodied carbon, toxicity and amenity from less need for virgin materials
• improved national competitiveness – exporting knowledge on design and processes, anticipating scarcity driven price rises

If you would like to view the report in full or download it, click here.

Source: CIWEM

These charges were revealed according to a new analysis carried out by the Local Government Association (LGA), the inflation busting 11% automatic increase set by the Government is being imposed despite the amount of household waste being sent to landfill by councils continuing to fall for the tenth year in a row and the country on course to meet it European environmental targets.

The LGA called upon the chancellor to use the Budget to cap landfill tax and stop siphoning council taxpayer’s money to fill the black hole in Treasury’s books.

Councils can simply not afford to continue with these rate rises and it is clear that it is residents who will suffer as the money they contribute towards local services are diverted away from filling potholes and caring for the elderly to cover up the cost of disposing of waste.

The landfill tax was originally introduced in 1996 to encourage councils and the private sector to reduce the amount of waste they were sending to landfill, this was done to meet the tough European environmental objectives. However, since 2008, the rate rises introduces by both the previous Government and the Coalition will have increased the cost per tonne from £24 to an eye-water £80, therefore increasing the amount councils have to pay out by a quarter of a billion in just five years.

Over the past 10 years councils have worked hard alongside their residents to reduce the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill, this resulted in a 42% decrease.  Is it not time for the Government to recognise these achievements and instead of punishing local authorities with higher rates help them with recycling?

Chair of the LGA’s Environment and Housing Board, Councillor Mike Jones, said:

“We recycle more than 43 per cent of our household waste in this country compared to just 10 per cent a decade ago. We are clearly on course to reach our European target of 50 per cent by 2020 and so landfill charges are an unnecessary cost imposed by central government. Further increases beyond 2014/15 would not be fair for councils which have worked so hard to get communities recycling or for the cash strapped residents who have to pick up the bill.”

He continued:

“Since central government started collecting the money generated through landfill tax they will have almost quadrupled the charge from £24 to £80 a tonne. This equates to almost six times the average rate of inflation, yet none of this extra money is being invested in developing our waste infrastructure or helping us hit our recycling targets.”

He finished by saying:

“Over the last decade we have seen a radical shift in our approach to what we throw away and this is largely due to councils to making it easier for residents to sort and dispose of everything from plastic bottles and tin cans to TVs and fridges, even disposable nappies. Landfill tax has played its part in encouraging us all to recycle, but any further increases would be misguided. The Government should be working with councils to help get the costs down, which would free up money to invest in the facilities that are needed to reduce the amount we send to landfill.”

References:

Recycling portal.eu

According to an article published on Resource, the consultation specifically concentrates on amending Chapter 12 of Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note 21 to ‘facilitate a comprehensive, flexible, integrated and adequate land use planning framework for the delivery of sustainable waste management in Wales’.

The amendments also seek to reflect the ‘priority order of waste management’ as set out in the European Union’s revised Waste Framework Directive, the Welsh Government’s Towards Zero Waste policy and overarching waste strategy in Wales.

An argument is raised within the consultation document, it says that if waste is to be seen as ‘a valuable rather than unwanted burden’, land use planning has to change to allow for ‘suitable and sustainable waste management facilities to be developed that will re-use, recycle and recover waste materials prior to the disposal of any residual element’.

As such, views are now being sought on a number of proposed changes to the policy, including ‘acknowledging that waste policy targets and drivers have evolved’ and consequently the Regional Waste Plans are ‘now outdated and should be revoked’.

A key area within the proposals is the introduction of Waste Planning Assessments (WPAs), which require developers to ‘demonstrate that they have considered the waste hierarchy, the contribution in terms of tonnage the facility would be able to provide towards meeting Towards Zero Waste and Collection Infrastructure and Markets (CIM) Sector Plan objectives, and also that any departure for the hierarchy could be justified on the basis of the best environmental outcome through the use of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA).

Other factors being proposed include:

• introducing a requirement for data collection, monitoring, and annual reports to be produced by Local Planning Authorities in conjunction with Natural Resources Wales (which can be used as evidence to support development plans and planning decisions);
• establishing a requirement to keep a minimum amount of landfill capacity in each region (North, South West & South East) relative to a trigger point, the level for which also forms part of the consultation but could be ‘based upon a number of years of void space’;
• commencing a site search and selection process to identify suitable locations for landfill for those areas that hit the agreed trigger point.

The consultation is open until 14 June.

Read more about the consultation on the national planning policy on waste in Wales.

References:

Resource

Planning for Waste – Revision to Chapter 12 of Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note 21

To speak to someone about your waste management requirements, call 0844 854 5000 or email info@gptwaste.com

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