Threats and Opportunities
Consultation closes on 7th October

DEFRA is holding a consultation on waste policy and delivery in England. The review aims to look at all aspects of waste policy and delivery in England in the context of creating a “zero waste economy”.

They are holding an online debate looking at their overall approach and the five tiers of the waste hierarchy “prevention, re-use, recycling, energy recovery and disposal”.  This general discussion can be accessed from the DEFRA website http://engage.defra.gov.uk/waste-review/ and closes on 9 September 2010. There is also an online survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/waste-review closing on the same date.

As part of the “Call for Evidence”, which allows the public to submit more detailed responses to the review, CCN will be sending our response to DEFRA separately. The Call for Evidence closes on 7 October 2010 and we would like your help in representing the view of the Community Composting Sector.

Some of the issues covered in the review are similar to those addressed in the Revised Waste Framework Consultation e.g. the implementation of the waste hierarchy, but this is a much wider reaching review looking at all areas of waste policy which presents a number of threats and opportunities for community composters.

The policy review is driven by what DEFRA identify as the governments key commitments, which in addition to talking the deficit, environmental protection and climate change include localism and the big society. We feel that this represents a real opportunity for community composters to highlight their valuable work in these areas. However we are very concerned that the call for evidence does not once mention composting, indeed biowaste is only mentioned in the context of energy recovery (through combustion, anaerobic digestion, advanced gasification and pyrolysis). Obviously we feel that this is a gross oversight on the part of DEFRA – and plan to draw this to their attention.

In order to complete our response & best represent you, our members, we would like to get your opinions on the following questions asked by Defra:

• How can we balance regulation to ensure that we protect health and the environment without unnecessarily burdening businesses and local authorities? What are the opportunities to reduce or remove the burdens of regulations? (e.g. exemptions and the animal by-product regulations)

• How should waste prevention be measured? (eg. How can we argue that home composting, and possibly community composting are waste prevention; is prevention relevant when discussing garden waste?)

• What steps can be taken to encourage community ownership of EfW (energy from waste) facilities? (eg. The CCN micro AD project, sustainable woodfuel projects (especially using outsize from composting projects, any other ideas?)

• Actions to ensure the cost-effective contribution waste management in England can make to the green economy is maximised, including the impact on the finances of both households and businesses, on job creation and on green industries themselves. (eg. Is community composting a cheaper option/better value for money in terms of outputs across social, environmental benefits and local economic resilience )

• The means of decentralising power and responsibility for some services to local communities. (e.g. isn’t biodegradable kitchen and garden ‘waste’  an obvious target for decentralisation as  there is no need for large centralised expensive specialist processing for it to be a resource which supports primary production (plant growth) and the proximity principle?)

All comments no matter how detailed/short are welcomed and where possible please provide some supporting evidence (quantitative and or qualitative). We will be issuing a further call for supporting evidence in good time for the 7^th October deadline.