New Post, Old News
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I’ve been out of the office for two days this week and managed to miss all the excitement! So now I’m writing a blog post with lots of news, none of which is very new. Ho hum.
So, here’s a run down of the Week in Waste so far:
Monday: Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the five anaerobic digestion projects which will get government grants. Biodegradable waste breaks down anaerobically in landfill and producing methane gas – a partcularly potent greenhouse gas, but also a rather useful fuel. Anaerobic digestors allow that methane to be captured and used.
Also on Monday, Jane Kennedy resigned from the government. Jane had been the environment minister with responsibility for waste and recycling since October 2008. I can’t comment on the political reasons for her resignation, but speaking as a civil servant, I think it’s a shame that ministers can leave, or be shuffled out of, their departments with no notice.
Tuesday: Hilary Benn launched Defra’s new packaging strategy: Making the most of packaging
The first of two Defra National Indicator workshops for Local Authorities was held in Birmingham. A few of us policy leads gave short presentations on our various indicators, but most of the day was for LAs to talk among themselves and tell Defra what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing from the indicator set.
There were some really interesting discussions, and it was great to see so many LA reps there who want to work with Defra to ensure that we get a set of National Indicators that meet both local and national needs.
Sadly I can’t make the next workshop in Reading, but I’m looking forward to seeing the outputs.
Wednesday: Portfolios were announced for our new ministers. The new man in waste and recycling is Dan Norris, MP for Wansdyke in Somerset.
I braved the Underground strike to go to the Futuresource conference. Thanks to the tremendously helpful map of central London provided by TFL, I managed to find a route to ExCel that was actually faster than if I’d gone by Tube.
The Defra exhibition stand was fairly quiet, which we hope is a reflection of the excellence of our ongoing communications rather than just because no-one cares!
Personally I had several tremendously useful conversations with people who tracked me down, though. Particular thanks to Tina Benfield of CIWM for her enthusiasm, insight and general desire to help with the review of the Controlled Waste Regulations.
On the other hand, I didn’t get to go to any of the sessions that I’d marked in my programme, and completely failed to get any freebies off the the other stands. I shall have to be more organised next year!
Thursday: seems to have been pretty quiet so far…
15 June 2009, 12:06 pm
I’m surprised the AD plants have been helped, as there are now working AD plants previosuly funded under WIDP by defra, bnut hey, its a decent technology so not too many complaints.
Futuresource was good, interesting to see the technologies being promoted by industry – lots more on the organic waste recycling side of things than on final disposal – and one or two technologies are obviously on their way out, very little information on landfilling for example.
28 June 2009, 12:09 pm
It was my first Futuresource, so I can’t compare it to previous years. There looked to be a lot of interesting stuff on display though. There was a stand near us that had a brilliant system of recycling boxes that stacked onto a wheeled trolley – giving you the benefit of boxes that you can keep in the kitchen and a ‘wheelie bin’ to make it easy to take out on collection day. There was a battery drawer in the trolley too.
Is it tragic that I’m coveting a recycling trolley?