BPF Welcomes Government Drive to Stop Waste being Landfilled

Peter Davis, Director General of the BPF, yesterday attended the Government’s ‘A World without Waste’ conference.

DEFRA Secretary of State, Hilary Benn called for all local authorities to provide a full recycling service to drive waste from landfill and said he will consult early next year on banning certain materials from landfill.

Benn stated that waste plans in Greater Manchester were ‘as close to a vision of the future as I’ve seen.’  These plans include large scale Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP) situated at the Ineos ChlorVinyls plant in Runcorn.

At the meeting Benn rejected the views of Friends of the Earth who object strongly to any use of Energy from Waste.  He said, ‘Truth has become divorced from the way energy is generated.  It has to come from somewhere.’  Waste must be used to generate energy.

John Denham Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government spoke of waste fired CHP stations and an ‘opportunity to generate energy from waste.’ 

Denham said local authorities must innovate and called for ‘new proposals to generate, Energy from Waste.  Too often those planning for waste and energy don’t work together.’

Peter Davis welcomed the drive to stop waste being landfilled. He said, ‘In our Plastics 2020 Challenge has the ultimate goal of avoiding the need altogether for plastics to go to landfill. Used plastics are a valuable resource, we want to recycle them.  If that doesn’t make economic or environmental sense then they should go to Energy from Waste to provide much needed local energy.’

Davis commented, ‘To achieve this goal we have to work with all stakeholders including national and local government. We welcome all Councils being urged to collect plastics which could be banned from landfill.’

Talking to Hilary Benn after the event Davis pledged full support, but also informed Benn that ‘industry is very concerned about where its energy supplies would come from in the future and therefore the development of a lot more Energy from Waste capacity was vital.’

ENDS
 
For further information on this press release, please contact Anthony Roberts, British Plastics Federation, 6 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London EC2A 3JE, tel 020 7457 5043, fax 020 7457 5045, email: [email protected]
 
Notes for editors:
 
1) British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the plastics industry - representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.