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PRESS RELEASE

To be released immediately: 4^th November 1999

GOVERNMENT WASTE STRATEGY LACKS VISION, CLAIMS CRN

The Community Recycling Network (CRN) warns that A Way With Waste, the latest Draft Waste Strategy shows up the Government's failure to grasp the seriousness of the waste problem facing this country.

No target is set in the proposed waste strategy for a reduction in waste arisings and such targets that are set are not mandatory but reflect the requirements of the Landfill Directive. Material recovery is assumed to have a limit, but this is only an arbitrary figure arrived at without intensive UK trials.

CRN is also concerned that funding for recycling is not addressed in the strategy - there is the assumption that the Landfill Tax will continue to be adequate. It was also drawn up without extensive input from the vast body of expertise in the recycling sector.

"There is little or nothing about jobs or social and economic possibilities in the draft strategy," says Andy Moore, CRN's Co-ordinator "despite the enormous opportunities a revolution in resource use presents. The limits to recycling and calls for an increase in incineration, despite an opposite international trend, appear to be based on erroneous assumptions or inaccurate data, or both."

In its response to the draft strategy the CRN says that despite the strategy covering the next 20 years it fails to take account of inevitable technological change.

Andy Moore adds: "A Way With Waste is, in the CRN's view, a step backwards from Less Waste More Value and it seems a year has been wasted."

For further information:

Andy Nelmes, CRN Press Officer, (0117) 907 4368.

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