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Third ESTET National Consensus Conference
Closing the Loop:
Financing and Regulating waste strategy after the PIU
Keynote Speech
The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP
Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
I am delighted to be able to address you here today at what is a very important event. You are some of the key players in delivering a more sustainable future.
First I should like to thank the Environmental Services Association and the industry for its work with my Department over the last year or so: ranging from their valued help in the Foot-and-Mouth crisis to the important contributions to the recent debates on the UK waste strategy.
I welcome particularly the strategic involvement of the ESA, and their commitment to bringing about positive change in the sector. The Association's vision of a strong, internationally renowned UK environmental industry is one that I very much support. It will play a crucial part in bringing about essential step-changes in UK resource productivity, waste minimisation, and the increased recovery of value from waste.
Part of my message is that government cannot face these environmental challenges alone. Local and central government, industry, communities, individuals - everyone will have to work together.
The outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development lends extra impetus to our efforts. The Summit negotiations were very difficult; but ultimately we ended up with a far more robust set of targets, timetables and agreements than we had dared hope. I understand the disappointment of those who wanted a different agenda for the Summit but given the agenda we had, we did very well. We achieved agreement on what I see, coupled with the Millennium Development Goals, as the greatest challenge the human race has ever set itself. This included targets and timetables on sanitation, chemicals, fish stocks, biodiversity, renewable energy and marine protected areas.
Another significant outcome, which I thought would not be possible, was the development of a 10-Year framework of programmes on sustainable production and consumption. This will require global action, but with the developed countries firmly in the lead - recognising our "common but differentiated responsibilities" (to use the jargon) for global environmental degradation. It will need concerted international action, and will require potentially fundamental changes to the way societies produce and consume.
I am determined to maintain the momentum on sustainable development in the aftermath of WSSD, and to develop a programme of action at UK level. I have invited Jonathan Porritt, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, and a group of 12 leading figures from business, local and regional government and civil society to discuss follow-up action with me in early October. I have invited them to focus on three specific issues - renewable energy, sustainable consumption and production, and the role of business in delivering sustainable development.
The challenge is to accelerate the shift towards production and consumption that is within the carrying capacity of ecosystems. The focus will be on decoupling the strong links between economic growth and resource use, between economic growth and the production of waste. This is an ambitious goal, but it is one that my Department has been working towards, both in Europe and in the UK - and now we have the added weight of the World Summit behind us.
The way we use resources is directly linked to the production of waste, and for this reason we need a properly integrated approach. As well as the damage from extraction and depletion of raw materials we need to address the environmental pressures from our extravagant use of resources: the pollution generated in production, usage and then in disposal.
We are working with our partners in Europe to prepare thematic strategies on resource productivity and waste within the 6th Environmental Action Programme. Such efforts will be supported through the further development of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, and will guide what happens on the ground here and across Europe.
How is the UK doing on resource productivity? The recently published Wuppertal Institute study on the UK economy shows that, since the 1970s, the growth in our use of resources has been much slower than the growth in GDP. This points to some decoupling of economic growth from resource consumption. In these terms our record compares favourably with the top 5 of the European Union and with Japan and the US.
However, growth in waste continues to exceed GDP growth and our resource use still places excessive demands on our environment and increasingly so on the environment of our trading partners as we import more of our manufactured goods. We cannot conclude, therefore, that resource productivity is happening naturally and that no further action needs to be taken to promote it.
Working closely with the Treasury, and the DTI, DEFRA is currently considering the various recommendations of the Strategy Unit (formerly the Performance and Innovation Unit) report on resource productivity "Making More With Less". Our response will be a practical and coherent framework for policy and action. It will incorporate resource productivity indicators with which to track progress and possible aspirational targets to highlight priorities for improvements.
We will promote resource productivity as a concept to underpin policy development and action on sustainable consumption and production at EU and international level.
Government is trying to demonstrate leadership by strengthening resource productivity within our own procurement and promoting waste minimisation in business through business support programmes such as Envirowise which provides business with free advice on waste minimisation and resource efficiency. Last year alone, Envirowise helped UK business to achieve annual cost savings of over £175m with a reduction of 1.6m tonnes of solid waste.
Another area to address is the impact of consumer products. We have a commitment to improve the standard of product information, by promoting reliable labelling schemes and by encouraging businesses to make clear and accurate environmental claims about their products. Public awareness campaigns also have an important role here and we are committed to delivering education and training to raise public awareness of the environmental pressures that come with production and consumption.
Let me turn now to waste itself. First the challenges:
the amount of waste we produce is growing too fast - and remains linked with GDP.
we are recycling too little. Our rates, though improving, are low in comparison to the EU average.
we face severe challenges under the Landfill Directive to reduce and control the landfill of waste. We have a legal obligation to reduce the landfill of biodegradable municipal waste and we have targets for industrial and commercial waste.
There will be increasing restrictions on the landfill of hazardous wastes, and we have important work to do in Europe on acceptance criteria. The waste industry needs clear direction on this, and we have continued to work closely with ESA, the Environment Agency and others. We are now looking to persuade the Commission to come up with a proposal that will attract a positive vote at the October meeting of Environment Ministers, and so end the uncertainty.
We need to look forward to various directives including those on End of Life Vehicles and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment - those will help strengthen our development of producer responsibility in the UK.
So how must we respond to these challenges?
Waste Strategy 2000 sets out the priorities of waste minimisation, re-use and recycling. Following the waste summit that we held last November, the Strategy Unit have been looking at what further steps need to be taken to achieve the waste strategy 2000 objectives, drawing on approaches taken by other nations. They have been examining the economic framework, targets, regulations and other instruments that will help us to meet our international obligations in the most cost effective and environmentally sustainable way. Their full report will be published later this autumn but on Friday, they published a factual discussion document aimed at raising public awareness about the waste problem and the options for tackling it.
Also in the near future, we will be setting out proposals on the membership and role of a Hazardous Waste Forum to advise on possible targets for its reduction.
Partnership is already and must be the way forward for UK waste management. Positive changes in the UK Waste Management Industry will require government (central and local), regulators and the waste industry to work together. It will require innovation, high standards and efficiency.
There are opportunities to be had in waste particularly from new technologies (whether it be recycling, composting or Energy-from-Waste). To become competitive and internationally acclaimed, the UK Waste Industry will need to work innovatively with other stakeholders.
The landfill directive and statutory targets for recycling and composting will place a burden on local authorities - and we don't expect them either to go it alone. The £140 million national waste minimisation and recycling fund will help, and the last two spending reviews have provided extra spending on environmental, protective and cultural services. There will also be funding for community recycling through the national lottery New Opportunities Fund. The Strategy Unit recommendations will, I anticipate, build on the range and scale of these programmes.
Of course, funding is only part of the equation: many local authorities will be doing things they have not done before. But there is a wealth of experience that local authorities can share with each other, on implementing recycling schemes, working with the public and with business, on using the market for recovered materials. And, of course, the Waste and Resources Action Programme is strengthening the market for recyclables with considerable success. This should help local authorities achieve their targets, as well as make recycling more cost-effective across all waste streams. Where there is Producer Responsibility for a particular waste stream (such as packaging and waste electrical equipment) I hope that people will see the opportunity for cooperative action between local authorities, business and with packaging compliance schemes.
Perhaps the most innovative feature of the World Summit was the emphasis on partnerships between governments, civil society and business. At the Summit, the UK launched the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) which will bring together several proposals on renewable energy and energy efficiency. So far partners include Brazil, Indonesia and a range of other countries which showed interest in Johannesburg, businesses such as Shell, and intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.
A shining example of what has been achieved in the UK through partnership is the voluntary agreement that we reached with the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA). Their first target for the recycled content of newsprint was 60% for the end of 2001, and the NPA have exceeded this by 3.5%. I hope we can reach similar agreements with other producers and with equal success.
I am glad that globally, business is increasingly recognizing the importance of environmental and social considerations. Corporate responsibility and accountability are an important element of the plan of implementation from WSSD. DEFRA and the DTI have established a group as part of the Company Law Review process to advise on how companies should report on environmental and social issues.
Many countries have been accused of merely paying lip-service to the goals of sustainable development. But in the UK, I believe we have made a real start, with significant progress on key environmental issues such as climate change, including the launch of the world's first economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme, and the Rural Recovery Programme. We have had a UK sustainable development strategy since 1999, and DEFRA recently published its own strategy - "Foundations for our Future" - with indicators to show whether our policies and practices are getting results.
We intend to make good progress over the coming year particularly on the long-term and difficult issues, such as climate change, rural renewal, sustainable food production, and global action on sustainable development. Working across Government, within Europe and with our partners in industry will be increasingly important if we are to achieve the results we all want.
A lot has been said about the outcome of Johannesburg. But the most important thing to remember is that it is not the end of a process - it is the beginning. 
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