PTZW tackles infrastructure “hole” in South East
Date: Wednesday 03 June 2009
Published by: letsrecycle.com

The director of an initiative designed to tackle commercial and industrial waste in South East England has revealed that plans are already afoot to improve waste data in the region and make it easier to get planning permission for recycling facilities.

Dr Chindarat Taylor, who is speaking at next week's Recycling and Waste Forum, told letsrecycle.com that, just two months after the Pathway to Zero Waste (PTZW) scheme was launched in March (see letsrecycle.com story), many projects were already "cooking".

PTZW was set up by the Environment Agency, South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and Waste & Resources Action Programme to help businesses reduce waste in the South East and save them money.

Initially focussing on construction and demolition waste - with a target to reduce the amount of this waste going to landfill by 50% by 2011 compared to 2008 levels - the project is also set to address food and wood over an initial three-year period. Its focus is commercial waste because this accounts for the majority of waste in the UK.

Commenting on progress to date, Dr Taylor explained that her team was already working on the ground in a brokering role to try to identify solutions and share best practice.

For instance, members have been meeting with local authorities to try and encourage them to offer the headroom in the recycling facilities for use by the private sector, and write contracts requiring a minimum recycled content, in a bid to increase demand. They have also been encouraging both the public and private sector to work more closely together.

Data
Dr Taylor also explained that work had been undertaken to improve the quality of data on waste in the region, in order to create a clearer picture of where waste was arising and could be used, and where recycling facilities may be needed.

This has already helped the Pathway to identify three areas - Reading, Brighton and South Hampshire - where there is a lot of construction taking place and therefore could be both a large supply of and demand for recovered materials.

Team members are also planning to set up some kind of commodity market to trade recyclable materials. They will also help the Environment Agency with a project entitled the Waste Crime Innovation Programme, which will use technology such as number plate recognition to target criminals and carry out spot checks to catch them.

Infrastructure
Dr Taylor said that, in particular, Pathway to Zero Waste was trying to get more infrastructure - such as construction materials recycling facilities (MRFs) and consolidation centres - on the ground. For instance, it has commissioned a business case for a construction MRF and is trying to find a waste management company to build it, and encourage banks to lend.

PTZW has also become involved with a big project called Planning and Procurement, led by the Government Office for the South East and Department for Communities and Local Government, which is aiming to produce a template to help speed up the planning process and simplify it to help local authorities put in the infrastructure required.

Dan Taylor, communications manager for PTZW, said: "The current lack of infrastructure is driving material to landfill, especially as some streams are quite specialist.

"We are being strategic about where facilities need to go", he added.

Urgent
Dr Taylor explained that the South East was chosen because there was "urgent" need to divert waste from landfill because there would be none left in three to five years and because companies could save millions of pounds during the recession.

She also said that the scale of construction and demolition taking place in the region and the good transport links lent it to the initiative.

However, she stressed that the project was important for the UK as a whole, and not just the South East.

She said: "This is a regional initiative but it will have national significance. The lessons learnt will be shared and spread to help speed up change in other places too. We plan to achieve a big cultural shift."

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