Waste in the United Kingdom (Part 3) by Nick Upton, 2006
 
 
a. The waste hierarchy : This concept prioritises to which processes waste should be subjected (See figure 1) in order to best deal with it in a sustainable fashion.
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Figure 1: The Waste Hierarchy (Hull City Council & East Riding of
Yorkshire Council, 2004).
   This hierarchy, quite rightly, aims to deal with waste by first reducing the amount that is produced to begin with, if this can be done then clearly the size of the problem of dealing with waste will be reduced. As second priority waste that is inevitably produced should be reused where possible. After this, recovery is most desirable; recovery means to obtain value by recycling, composting or the recovery of energy by various means (Defra, 2001). Finally, when all other alternatives have been exhausted, waste should be disposed of. In this way, regional and local authorities are directed away from, except as a last resort, disposal by landfilling and incineration when compiling their waste management plans. By using this well-crafted diagram the concepts of this hierarchy are clearly illustrated, and by using arrows which become smaller down the diagram the implications for the amounts of waste that should progress down this hierarchical system are clear.

 

 

 
 
 
b. The best practicable environmental option : Rather less insightful than the waste hierarchy, this phrase seems to leave a lot of room for interpretation. The best environmental option may well be practicable in terms of achievability, but may also be expensive, making it not the most “practicable” in the eyes of those controlling these resources. At its best, this principle gives authorities the guidance to select whether reduction, re-use or recovery is the best solution in any given circumstance; at its worst, it gives authorities an excuse to simply dispose of waste because the other options are expensive or challenging, rendering them “impracticable”.

c. The proximity principle : This principle is one which seems to appreciate the wider picture of the question of waste in that it considers the resources that are consumed and the controversy that can arise when transporting waste (BBC, 2005; Vidal, 2004). It states that all waste should be processed as close to its source as possible in order to reduce CO2 emissions in transportation, to reduce the spread of contamination from hazardous waste and to reconnect people with the consequences of their waste production, something that has been called in the past (Seymour & Girardet, 1987); in this way this principle attempts to deal with NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) by putting the obligation on those who produce waste to deal with it locally.

Regional and/or local authorities use these principles and the policies from national government to produce their own waste management strategies which deal with the details of how these will be implemented, meaning that no two management strategies will be exactly the same as they are tailored to local needs (Defra, 2001).

The principles are reinforced by taxation policy from the Exchequer; with one of the most influential and most-talked about being the Landfill tax which is designed to act as an incentive against landfilling waste, therefore encouraging people to reduce, recycle and reuse.

Next : The Benefits of Waste Regulation