SUEZ outlines key asks to government to meet the UK’s waste targets

The waste service industry is an essential front-line service, delivering weekly collections and daily processing, as well as playing a crucial role in energy generation and materials recycling. As a sector, it will be at the heart of tackling the climate crisis head on as it underpins green transitions across a number of industries, but delays to key policy reforms as a result of Government’s lack of clarity to date have stalled progress in the sector.

Today, SUEZ and its local authority partners are calling on Government to accelerate its efforts to drive forward waste reforms, to help meet the UK’s ambitious environmental targets and pave the way forward to a low carbon, resource efficient and more circular economy.

SUEZ argues that to make these ambitions a reality the waste and resource sector needs a clear policy pathway which the previous administration failed to deliver on. The key asks outlined in the letter are:

1. Provide clarity and simplicity in policy. The provision of clear timelines and targets for Government waste reforms will be crucial for effective and timely decision-making by local authorities and service providers so they can execute their plans over the next five years. For example, the implementation plan for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requires urgent clarification.
2. Effective funding and support. It is essential for the implementation of any new policies so that existing and new infrastructure can be updated or deployed to manage our volumes of waste and invest in innovative recycling methods. Confirmed funding support from Government for waste management, including via EPR, will be key to ensuring quality local services can continue to be delivered consistently across the UK.
3. Drive behaviour change. We need a national campaign and consistent communications to promote greater consumer and business understanding of the circular economy and improve consumer participation in local recycling schemes. Building understanding of better consumption and busting myths about the sector will be essential to boost behaviour change.

Dr Adam Read MBE, Chief Sustainability and External Affairs Officer at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said: “We are at critical juncture in the development of a more sustainable, resource efficient economy. For too long, policymaking has been subject to competing demands and asks from different departments, and we urgently need a joined-up approach right across Government. Our industry, alongside our local authority partners and customers, are keen to play our part supporting the development of policies; the delivery of communications campaigns; and the crowding-in of capital that will be crucial in transforming the UK’s management of waste towards a more sustainable and effective future.”