ESA Presentation at Torbay Conference

ESA Chief Executive Dirk Hazell participated in an afternoon session at CIWM’s 2008 Conference in Torbay.

The conference session concerned the strategies the UK will need to deliver on the ‘waste to resources’ revolution and how these can be turned into action. Other speakers at the event, chaired by Bob Lisney OBE, included John Wante of OVAM talking about prevention and management of household waste in Flanders, and Joanna Muse of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency who presented a Scottish case study.

Mr Hazell focused on the industry’s perspective. He emphasised how the UK needs a lot more infrastructure to be delivered very quickly. He called on all political parties to show “responsible political leadership by supporting permitted development rights for uncontroversial minor and non-controversial adaptations of our sector’s existing facilities on the same basis as that applied to other utilities” as this would free resources to speed the delivery of new infrastructure. 

Mr Hazell went on to highlight a range of other issues, including the sector’s vital role in the emerging sustainable consumption, production and recovery agenda, the need to overcome the missed opportunity to co-ordinate the Waste Strategy in England with planning and energy policy, how ESA is working hard to develop industry standards for the allocation and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from the industry’s waste management processes and activities, and how ESA would like to see the European Environment Agency develop a role as an auditor of national environmental agencies to ensure European environmental targets are genuinely met and secured on time.

ENDS