Gavin Graveson, Senior Executive Vice President for the Northern Europe Zone at Veolia, responds to the announcement by the UK Government of reforms to household and business bin collections, and a crackdown on unscrupulous waste carriers.
Today's simpler recycling announcement is a welcome step forward to improve the quantity and quality of material that we process. We now need to quicken the pace of UK recycling rates by ensuring that packaging is designed to be reused, repaired or recycled.
There is still an urgent need for waste reforms, policy visibility, and investment.
We strongly suggest that the Government consider escalating the plastic packaging tax to a minimum 50% recycled content to stimulate the market without creating a burden for the taxpayer and focus Extended Producer Responsibility on hard to recycle materials such as laminates and composite materials.
We need stability in the recycling market to underpin investments so we can stimulate the green economy, create jobs and bring us closer to our net zero goals.
We welcome measures to further address waste crime in our industry and we strongly support enforcers having more power and resources to bring these criminals to justice.
Overall, this is a £1 billion illegal industry, but tackled properly, every pound spent on stopping waste crime brings an immediate return on investment.
