National Waste Strategy

The first version of the Strategy for England and Wales was published in May 2000.[4] By 2007 Defra reported that:[5]

• Recycling and composting of waste had nearly quadrupled since 1996-97, achieving 27% in 2005-06;
• The recycling of packaging waste had increased from 27% to 56% since 1998;
• Less waste is being landfilled, with a 9% fall between 2000–01 and 2004–05; and
• Waste growth was being reduced with local authority domestic and business waste collections growing much less quickly than the economy of the United Kingdom at 0.5% per year.

WS2000 was superseded by the Waste Strategy for England 2007[6] which was published in May 2007. The main proposals for England were to:

• Incentivise efforts to reduce, re-use, recycle waste and recover energy from waste;
• Reform regulation to drive the reduction of waste and diversion from landfill while reducing costs to compliant business and the regulatory agencies;
• Target action on materials, products and sectors with the greatest scope for improving environmental and economic outcomes;
• Stimulate investment in collection, recycling and recovery infrastructure, and markets for recovered materials that will maximise the value of materials and energy recovered; and
• Improve national, regional and local governance, with a clearer performance and institutional framework to deliver better coordinated action and services on the ground.

WS2007 was superseded by the Waste Management Plan for England[7] in December 2013. It did not introduce any new policies or change the landscape of how waste is managed in England. Its core aim was to bring current waste management policies under the umbrella of one national plan. It reports that (at the time of publication) "recycling and composting of household waste in England increased to 43% and business recycling rates have increased to 52%. Local authorities, who cover all household waste and some commercial and industrial waste, have reduced the amount of waste they send to landfill by about 60% since 2000."

The Welsh Assembly Government published Wales' first national waste strategy in 2002,[8] which replaced WS2000. The targets set in the strategy included those where Wales must meet targets set for the UK in EC Directives, primary Wales specific targets where the Assembly Government and its key partners (e.g. local government) had a direct influence over their outcome and secondary Wales specific targets where the Assembly Government’s influence is less.

Wales published its updated national waste strategy, Towards Zero Waste,[9] in 2010. It sets out how the Welsh Assembly Government will build on the successes achieved through Wise About Waste, via a long term framework for resource efficiency and waste management between now and 2050.

Published in 2003, the National Waste Plan established the direction of the Scottish Executive’s policies for sustainable waste management to 2020.[10] It had the following waste management objectives:

• provide widespread segregated kerbside waste collections across Scotland (to over 90% of households by 2020);
• aim to stop growth in the amount of municipal waste produced by 2010;
• achieve 25% recycling and composting of municipal waste by 2006, and 55% by 2020(35% recycling and 20% composting);
• recover energy from 14% of municipal waste;
• reduce landfilling of municipal waste from around 90% to 30%;
• provide widespread waste minimisation advice to businesses; and
• develop markets for recycled material to help recycling become viable and reduce costs.

The Zero Waste Plan sets the strategic direction for waste policy for Scotland up to 2020. Its objectives include the following:

• Target of 70% recycling and maximum 5% to landfill by 2025 for all Scotland’s waste;
• Landfill bans for specific waste types;
• Source segregation and separate collection of specific waste types; and
• Restrictions on inputs to energy from waste facilities.

In March 2000 the Department of the Environment published the first waste management Strategy for Northern Ireland.[12] This set out how waste generated should be managed based on the waste hierarchy.

In 2006, the Department of the Environment published Towards Resource Management, which focused on the period up to 2020.[13] The strategy highlighted the need to increase waste recycling and recovery in a number of ways that included:

• the renewal of recycling targets;
• focused awareness campaigns; and
• the possible introduction of incentive schemes.

The revised waste management strategy entitled Delivering Resource Efficiency was published in 2013.[14] It retains and builds on the core principles of the previous strategy, Towards Resource Management.