E’s are good
The next three to five years in sustainable resources and wastes management will test the best, says Steve Lee, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management.
The mantra will be ‘More from Less’, right across this sector and all of its client base – be they individuals, authorities or businesses. We have to cut waste through better design and informed consumption; we have to put more waste back to work through reuse, recycling and recovery; and we have to drive standards for waste treatment and disposal ever upwards.
Looking at it in the round, we need better resource efficiency at a lower environmental and financial cost. The three ‘E’s of value for money (economy, efficiency, effectiveness), firmly driven by the fourth E (environment) have been joined by two newcomers – expectation and economics. Between them, these two forces will set the tone for the next stages in the resources revolution.
Expectation continues to rise. Governments at a global, European and national level see waste as a vital part of our response to climate change, future energy policy and resource efficiency. We have a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent between now and 2050, and a 15 per cent renewable energy target for 2020. The revised waste Framework Directive has to be implemented at national level, the Landfill Tax marches upwards – £48/tonne in 2010 and £72/tonne by 2013 – and consultations are coming soon on landfill bans or restrictions. WRAP has a newlyconfirmed role in supporting energy recovery from wastes, and new styles of regulation, including feed-in tariffs and renewable heat incentives, are being introduced. There is also, of course, the small matter of a General Election in the UK in 2010, but none of the above is likely to be blown off course by that.
Business expectation also continues to rise. Waste and resources has become a bottom line issue and a clear market pressure / advantage. There is a growing call for competitive pricing by our industry, backed by a value-added service. Businesses need partnership with waste managers now, including feedback and advice. Businesses also demand secondary materials of the right quality. That goes for materials like glass and paper, but also, now, for biogas or transport fuels. The back gate relationship where waste was whisked away at minimum cost and inconvenience is a thing of the past.
Individuals, too, expect more of this industry. Defra’s 2009 environment attitudes survey showed that 85 per cent of people now agree that “people have a duty to recycle”. This has to be met by services that satisfy all of the ‘E’s. Unfortunately, that is not often matched by an appetite to accept new services or infrastructure. Without new facilities to reprocess materials or to recover energy, we will not be able to deliver. Planning has been the bête noir of waste management since time began, but now more than ever we need senior political leadership at national and local levels. Waste going to landfill was largely invisible; putting it back to work or using it to generate energy, however, happens much closer to where people live and work, and while the answer from communities is “no”, progress will be slow. The job of professionals within this industry has to be to prepare and present proposals, and to operate facilities, to the best possible standards. Expectation has to be met with excellence.
The sixth ‘E’ is economics. The original ‘E’ for Economy meant inputs to services, literally doing agreed things at the least cost, but now things have changed slightly. Share prices, house prices and bank bonuses may be rebounding but businesses and local authorities will feel the effect of the banking crisis for some years to come. Public sector spending in particular will bear the brunt, and this will affect local authorities and government agencies alike, AND businesses that provide their services, advice, plant and equipment, and the people that go with them. This is where ‘More from Less’ bites hardest.
Although the exact scale of spending cuts is not yet known, what is clear is that year-onyear cuts are likely and at levels most of us have never seen before. This will affect both capital and revenue.
While nobody in their right minds would call for such straightened times, some good may come of it. Instead of incremental changes to policy and services – slow but steady improvement – we now have to think much more radically. New forms of partnership between local authorities and between public and private sector are needed – including joint procurement, joint service provision and funding for infrastructure. We also have to plan for all wastes and resources, regardless of their origin, treating materials as an economic advantage wherever possible, and planning for heat and energy recovery. Time to do this is already tight, but the gains are worth working for. We just need to unfreeze planning and investment, the usual suspects in this industry, matched by the best possible standards from all of the professionals involved.
Value for money and its 3 ‘E’s are here to stay. So, too, are the other ‘E’s: environment, expectation and economics. Together they make a strong mix that sets the agenda for all of us. We will be tested, but tougher times may turn out to be the proving ground of better resource efficiency.
