Joined up thinking takes off in Wales

12th February 2010

Please go to the Events Archive page to download the presentations

Joined up thinking between sectors and departments dealing with waste took a step forward in Wales as representatives from the social enterprise, statutory and private sectors gathered in Cardiff 4th February.

The first joint event between Cylch (Wales Community Recycling Network) and CIWM (Chartered Institution of Waste Management) saw 100 delegates with approximately equal representations from all three sectors.

“If you’re not here you might well have missed the bus” said Andy Rees (head Welsh Assembly Government Waste Strategy Unit), as he urged all those attending to work more closely together if Wales is to fulfil its 70% diversion target across all sectors. With WAG sector plans, potential additional waste legislation powers and expansion of the list of materials banned from landfill for Wales all due in spring 2010, he also emphasised the Assembly’s wish to measure outcomes on environmental, economic and social grounds, calling for closer liaison with the Assembly on how to measure social impacts in particular.

Emphasising the shift in thinking from waste being a “problem” to an area where business could make significant costs savings, Peter Webster of WRAP Cymru revealed that Welsh business could save £318 million per year with the right waste resource management initiatives. WRAP are now placing the waste issue firmly in the field of climate change and carbon rather than landfill diversion alone, and as such are developing a more integrated approach to the issue, with future emphasis to include more work on waste reduction than previously.

Mathew Prosser of Severnside Recycling outlined how they are helping Marks and Spencer reach there Plan A proposals of “no operational waste to landfill” by developing a shop floor bar code monitoring system to analyse food that has to, for whatever reason, be removed from shelves. The records identify over ordering and shelf life issues helping M&S tackle the reduce end of the waste hierarchy more effectively. The knock-on effects have made significant savings for M&S in both cash and carbon terms. “It’s a common fallacy that a choice between carbon and economics has to be made … all decisions should be made using both metrics.” According to Mr Prosser the cash savings alone to M&S are in six figures per annum from one store alone.

Penelope Goodwin of Wastesavers Charitable Trust outlined how perceptions of social enterprises as “do-gooders” and a “bunch of hippies” were clearly out of date and that by working across departments within local authorities the added value of using third sector operations was much more clearly understood by their local authority partner in Newport. Ms Goodwin went on to explain that “third sector operations can bring local knowledge, established networks and the added value of not being just cost related, but also providing a significant social return on investment for local authorities.”

Owain Griffiths of the Welsh Local Government Association told the conference that the WLGA was undertaking a programme to measure local authority performance in cost and efficiency terms in a more consistent way than before. With significant cuts in local authority budgets on the horizon, the linking of efficiency with performance is seen as a priority for WLGA reporting on recycling. The Association are also keen to create a level playing field for benchmark comparisons between authorities, particularly when recording the overall costs of recycling operations so that comparisons stand up to scrutiny.

Ends.

More information: Phil Hurst (Cylch) 02920 649 750 or James Kay (CIWM) 07921 310245

www.ciwm.org.uk /  www.cylch.org.uk