Launching the consultation today, Minister for Local Environment Quality, Ben Bradshaw said that the Government's current strategy needed a broader approach and a change of emphasis and urged residents in the North West to get involved:
"We've made some really positive progress since 2000: recycling and composting of household waste has doubled, nearly 50 per cent of packaging waste is being recycled and less waste is being sent to landfill.
"But there is more to do in order to achieve our aim to reduce our rising streams of waste and bury less of it in landfills by making use of the valuable resources it contains.
"Moving towards a recycling culture in the North West both at home and at work, is just one of the ways we can help achieve this - but the new strategy places a much greater emphasis on waste prevention.
"We need to put more effort into producing less waste in the first place, before considering how to make more use of the waste which is left by reusing, recycling, composting or using it as a fuel.
"This means thinking about the whole life cycle of a product, identifying and targeting products with the most significant waste impacts before it even reaches consumers in the North West and using what waste is left as a resource to produce economic as well as environmental benefits."
In a YouGov survey for Defra, only 3% of people in the North of England always think about how they are going to get rid of the everyday items they buy when they no longer need or want it, half of people admitted that it never crosses their minds.
Households in the North West paid on average £103 per year to have their waste collected, treated and disposed of.
Indeed, many people thought they were paying more for waste collection, treatment and disposal than they actually were. Most people (37%) think that it currently costs local authorities £10 per week to collect and deal with their household waste, in fact it is on average just £2 per household.
Among the measures being proposed are:
- Greater focus on producing less waste in the first place by developing a greater emphasis on eco-design, increased engagement with businesses and householders on waste prevention, including more agreements with businesses to take greater responsibility for their products at the end of their life.
- Developing a recycling culture by shifting our thinking so that the recycling of resources is part of our everyday activities whether at home, at work or during leisure. New, more ambitious recycling and composting targets for household waste - 40% in 2010, 45% by 2015 and 50% by 2020 - are being proposed, alongside advice and information to the public.
- Recovering more resources from businesses waste with new targets for a reduction in the proportion of commercial and industrial waste landfilled, more help for small businesses and a more joined up approach in managing waste from different sources facilitated by local authorities and regional bodies.
- Making proper use of new investment to recover energy from waste as an alternative to landfill but not at the expense of practical waste prevention and recycling by seeing a more modest growth than original estimates. Waste Strategy 2000 set a target for 67% recovery of waste by 2015 by recycling, composting, energy from waste (incineration, pyrolysis and gasification) and digestion with at least 33% composting and recycling. The new strategy proposes the same overall target of 67% recovery target in 2015 but with much higher levels (45%) of recycling and composting
Ben Bradshaw added:
"We all create waste, and so we all need to play a part in reducing the waste we produce and dealing with the waste we do produce more responsibly.
"Fundamentally, the revised waste strategy is about reducing the environmental impact of waste: reducing the impact on climate change, conserving limited natural resources and reducing risk to health and the environment from potentially harmful substances in waste.
"To achieve this the revised waste strategy will offer a clearer, longer-term vision for waste and resource management, linked closely with our action plan on sustainable production and consumption.
"It will also outline how we can work together to achieve this. Therefore it will be vital for everyone in the North West - from householders and builders to supermarkets and banks - to have their say in the Strategy and how it will take us towards our goals."
The consultation paper and accompanying Regulatory Impact Assessment and Environment Report are available from the Defra website. Deadline for comments is 9 May 2006.
People will be able to respond to the consultation online.
Did You Know? - Key facts for the North West
In 2002/03 23.7 million tonnes of waste was produced by people and businesses in the North West compared to 23.6 million tonnes in 1998/99.
Businesses and industry produced 8.3 million tonnes, the construction and demolition sector 11.1 million tonnes and residents 4.3 million tonnes.
Of that 10.8 million tonnes were sent to landfill sites in 2002/03, 8.9 million tonnes were recycled, and 0.4 million tonnes was used to produce energy.
Households in the North West paid on average £103 per year to have their waste collected, treated and disposed of.
The latest figures for recycling by residents in the North West (for 2004/05) show that residents are recycling 20% of their household waste.
Top regional findings from YouGov survey for North of England
Most people think that plastics (48%) make up most household waste, in fact it only makes up about 7% by weight.
Most people (37%) think that it currently costs local authorities £10 per week to collect and deal with their household waste, in fact it is on average £2 per household.
40% of people think that household waste accounts for over half of all waste produced in England, in fact it is makes up just 9%.
Half of all people (51%) surveyed thought that packaging made up over a quarter of the average householder bin, in fact it makes up under a fifth.
Only 3% of people always think about how they are going to get rid of the everyday items they buy when they no longer need or want it, nearly half of the people surveyed admitted that it never crosses their minds.
Only 12% of people say they never recycle everyday items. Most people recycle paper (79%), glass bottles and jars (68%), card (49%), cans and tins (53%) and plastics (29%).
Over a third of people compost garden cuttings and a fifth compost food waste at home, but most people admit that they don't compost any of their waste (61%).
If there were more opportunities to recycle at work and in work and in public and leisure places 54% of people said they would always use them.
Nearly two thirds of people surveyed (62%) thought that recovering energy from waste via incineration was a sensible option for waste that couldn't be recycled and was better than landfill. Nearly a quarter (23%) said did not know enough about it to form a judgement either way.
Over a quarter of people (28%) thought that the best way to fund waste collection, treatment and disposal was to include it as part of the price of the product when it is initially bought. A quarter of people (25%) thought it should remain funded through council taxes.
