1. Waste Management in the Rural Sector Royal Agricultural College Friday 23 November

2. How waste is perceived Indifference – waste has always been back of house, low cost, low visibility Unglamorous - none of the attractions of IT, HR or finance Subsequently a low priority, no great need to change the way waste is handled. INCREASED COST HAS CHANGED PERCEPTIONS

3. Typical waste management c.2001

4. What changed? Legislation leading to an end to the UKs dependence on cheap access to landfill Landfill infrastructure running out fast Public perceptions of waste and recycling changing

5. The EU Landfill Directive 1999 Made the environmental case for reducing landfill disposal. Set binding targets to reduce the volumes of waste member states send to landfill. Fiscal penalties for non-compliance Introduced new requirements for landfill site operators to make provision for maintenance of the sites long after operations cease Pre-treatment - finally introduced in the UK in October 2007

6. Packaging Waste Regulations Still widely misunderstood- some respected high profile names still getting caught Relatively easy for companies to buy their way out of their obligations Some companies who are operating excellent recycling schemes are falling foul of the regulations PRN system is seen by some as a tax on recycling

7. Landfill Tax Introduced in 1996 in response to the forthcoming LD Larger increases since 2007 budget – now a major driver of the increase in waste costs Politically neutral Still very low in UK relative to our EU neighbours - eg Ireland

8. Landfill Tax 2003 =£14 2004 =£15 2005 =£18 2006 =£21 2007 =£24 2008 =£32 2009 =£40 2010 =£48 By 2012 total landfill costs could be well over £100 / tonne

9. Public perception – image is everything

10. Recycling will cease to be optional Commercially essential to reduce costs Consumers will demand best practice Legislative barriers to old methods of disposal

11. Many firms still aren’t ready Research carried out by the EA recently suggests that a third of small businesses aren’t aware of the requirement to pre- treat their waste - that’s up to 1.6million firms who could be breaking the law and are potentially liable to EA fines.

12. Recycling is no longer optional A quote from an accountant in the Daily Telegraph in response to the pre- treatment laws “…the first step towards making it illegal not to recycle” Daily Telegraph 15 November 2007

13. Recycling adds ££££s Every tonne of material removed from the landfill stream saves the organisation upwards of £50.00 Some recyclable materials command revenue – cardboard and plastic, metals, textiles, EPS

14. Why would you put it into landfill?

15. What happens when there is too much recycling? Consumer demand for recycled products Most recyclables are derived from finite resources - oil, etc Pressure on land use for pulp – more profitable to grow food or fuel crops. Low cost of shipping recycled goods to areas of high demand (far east) from western consumer economies