Environment

Packaging Federation chief Dick Searle has blasted the government’s Waste Strategy for England for failing to fully address problems in collection and reprocessing.

Searle said the strategy, published yesterday, was “very disappointing”.

“It’s long on rhetoric but short on the one piece of action that was necessary as far as our industry is concerned – bringing the activities and aspirations of local authorities and recyclers in line with the demands placed on the packaging supply chain.”

Searle also criticised the government’s proposals for a new Waste Strategy Board to be led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), saying it should have been independent of government, like Ofwat or Ofgem.

And he accused the government of having “an obsession with packaging that is totally unjustified by the numbers”, pointing out that packaging from household waste accounted for less than 3% of waste sent to landfill.

Searle welcomed the strategy’s proposals to produce more energy from waste. “It’s too little, but at least it’s not too late,” he said.

The target for 25% of municipal waste to be used to produce energy by 2020 would be “comfortably exceeded once the momentum gets going”, he added.

However, he questioned proposals for the development of optimal packaging standards per product class. “It’s a mammoth task and a totally moveable feast,” he said. “It also raises competition law issues.”