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Waste policy

Waste is becoming increasingly important as a valuable resource of secondary raw materials as the effects of Climate Change and natural resource scarcity start to bite.

Defra hold the overall policy responsibility for waste issues in Government but BIS’s Waste Policy team focus on the impact of waste legislation and regulation on business. Their objective is to identify significant problems in terms of cost and administrative burdens and resolve them as quickly as possible.

The team engage with Defra on key pieces of regulation to ensure that business interests are taken into account and also work with the Environment Agency in the Landfill Regulation Group on how it is implemented.

They work with WRAP and others to support the development of markets as the UK moves to a resource efficient economy.

The Waste Policy team are supporting industry’s move from waste management into resource efficiency and are keen that they are fully engaged in the development of the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy.

 

 

Further work on resource efficiency has been undertaken, and the Waste Policy team commissioned Urban Mines to do a study on the potential for resource efficiency savings for businesses, supported by case studies of companies which had successfully implemented resource efficiency measures.

The main report,'Potential for resource efficiency savings for businesses', looks into the potential for companies to make savings from improved waste management – concentrating on energy, waste and water savings, greenhouse gas savings and using waste materials as secondary materials for re-use and substitution, and is available here:

Potential for resource efficiency savings for businesses
(PDF, 874 Kb)
The report on the case studies called,'Practical Resource Efficiency Savings : Case Studies', outlines practical examples of companies that have undertaken resource efficiency measures that have resulted in monetary savings from improved waste management. The case studies seek to demonstrate both the financial benefits (cost savings and pay back period where appropriate) and the environmental benefits measured in green house gas savings (carbon savings), including substitution of raw materials and use of secondary materials. The case studies report is available here:

Practical resource efficiency savings: case studies (PDF, 712 Kb)