What a waste

A couple of weeks ago, the coalition Government published its Waste Review. 12 months in the making, and no doubt many millions spent on its research and publication, it has been eagerly awaited by the industry. The Government claims to want to be the greenest ever. Buy, oh dear, they forgot  to tell anyone how they were going to achieve this ambitious goal.

The Waste Review is a truly appalling document. It is full of good ideas, but empty of clear policy or direction. It is also totally devoid of anything radically new or any real ambition.

But don't just take my word for it.

Friends of the Earth said, "The Government has spent a year reviewing its approach to rubbish - at vast public expense - and all it's managed to do is reduce its ambition, recycle old ideas and dump its commitment to a zero waste economy."

"The Government's Waste Review published today (Tuesday) is disappointing, lacking a clear programme of delivery," from the British Retail Consortium.

The Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee - "The strategy is trying to hurtle towards the future with its eyes firmly fixed on the rear view mirror."

And whilst the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management welcomed some of the proposals it acknowledged that "more needs to be done".

Apparently Caroline Spelman (Secretaty of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has fallen out with Eric Pickles (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) over the Waste Review and they are now not speaking to each other. It is a pleasure to know that something good, however small,  has come out of this sad and sorry document.