The Labour Party has said that more challenging recycling targets should be set, as is already the case in Scotland and Wales, and that economic security can be aided by an advanced waste strategy that creates manufacturing jobs in addition to laying the foundations for sustainable growth. The news will interest many of those that use Collect and Recycle (http://www.collectandrecycle.com) for copper and aluminium recycling.
On April 19, shadow ministers Mary Creagh and Gavin Shuker launched the Party’s consultation on its future waste policy, Resource security: jobs and growth from waste. In the document, there is criticism for the coalition government for setting targets that only strive for the Waste Framework Directive’s “bare minimum” requirements. It adds that current recycling targets will be re-evaluated by a Labour government so that it can be determined whether recycling in England would be boosted by a new set of targets.
Views are being sought on whether England should be aligned with the Scottish and Welsh targets of achieving 70 per cent recycling by 2025. The present government’s target is to meet the 50 per cent recycling rate by 2020 that the European Union requires.
The document said that the UK’s relationship to municipal waste had been “transformed” by the previous Labour government, with household recycling having been quadrupled, measures introduced for the diversion of waste from landfill and capital investment in new technologies secured between 1997 and 2010. It said that the present government had overseen stalled progress, with an opportunity missed in the 2011 Waste Review “to drive innovation and boost investor confidence”.
It said that standards were being driven up, and jobs created, by the Labour government in Wales, and that the Party’s Policy Review would focus on the generation of “sustainable growth and new jobs in and through the waste industry”.
Another suggestion in the document that will interest many of those involved in cardboard recycling is that reformation would be sought of the Packaging Waste Export Recovery Note (PERN) system, which the Party claims incentivises organisations to export recyclates of poor quality to be exported abroad. Labour has said that methods of ensuring the highest standard of the recycling of materials will be explored, and a “level playing field” for domestic recyclers promoted.
The Party also said that with so many industries having been lost or weakened, low carbon industries were required to supplement them, as part of the drive to rebuild the economy. Also attracting interest from many of those recycling old computers has been a hint that the Party may attempt to incentivise businesses that design easily reused or recycled products.
Collect and Recycle (http://www.collectandrecycle.com) welcomes any positive moves to strengthen the recycling industry, covering the likes of copper recycling and WEEE disposal. The company will update its clients regularly with any legislative changes, and offers a highly reputable and entirely legal national recycling service for businesses and organisations of all types.
