The Environment Agency has launched the Waste and Resources Assessment Tool for the Environment (WRATE), a new environmental assessment software.

WRATE has been developed to help managers assess the environmental impacts of different ways of managing household waste. The software identifies and measures all emissions of managing waste, from the use of containers like wheelie bins, through to the transport used for final waste recovery and disposal.

Liz Parkes, Head of Waste at the Environment Agency, commented: "While we need to reduce the amount of waste we create in the first place, we must also ensure that we manage the waste we do produce in the most environmentally responsible way. WRATE will help those managing household waste, particularly local authorities, by comparing the potential environmental impacts such as global warming, acid rain or the nitrification of our rivers and how these impacts can be altered by changing the way they manage the waste."

The WRATE tool has the ability to process the environmental costs and benefits related to managing waste, showing where changes will be most effective, and identify when an improvement in one area would result in a loss of efficiency in another. It is user friendly and has been designed with the option of adding new technologies in the future.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency's Waste Resources Unit Manager, John Ferguson, added: "WRATE is a huge step forward for sustainable waste management. Waste managers will be able to use WRATE to plan the next generation of waste management facilities knowing the full environmental impacts of their decisions."