Government must support councils to recycle locally and introduce innovative technology

Advanced Sustainable Developments (ASD), welcomes the Government’s ‘long overdue’ waste strategy but urges the Government to be more transparent and help support local councils to recycle as much locally as possible.

Ahmed Detta, CEO of ASD says, the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy is long overdue.

Detta says, ‘It’s astonishing that the last Government review into the UK’s waste strategy was 11 years ago.  This new strategy needs to be bold and most importantly, transparent.’

‘Here at ASD we believe that everyone needs to take responsibility for our waste: producer, consumer, recycler.’

Detta supports the Government’s proposals to tackle the recycling post-code lottery but argues that Government needs to go further and address the poor skill set in the industry.

Detta says, ‘Councils simply do not have the technical skill set inhouse to deliver solutions to our recycling problems.  The problem with PET plastic (the most ubiquitous of the 7 plastics recycled in the UK) needs to be central to our recycling strategy in the UK and Government must support innovation and introduce new technology.  Here at ASD our focus on PET will transform the way we recycle in the UK – using a circular economy to make single-use plastic a thing of the past’.

Detta believes that the recycling industry in the UK is inherently broken.  He says, ‘we need to overhaul the industry.  Every Council should have its own mini ecosystem where they can recycle as much locally as possible before transporting waste to landfills or selling abroad. Ideally, councils need to work collaboratively and have a strategic recycling plant next to major waste recovery facilities, with investment into companies both by producers and local Government.’

‘We must start looking at all waste streams properly to create a bold and long term strategy and not focus on easy fixes’.