The UK government announced at the end of July that it will be enshrining the vast majority of the EU’s Circular Economy Package (CEP) into UK law after the country officially exits the European bloc
9, a:1:{i:0;s:8:”defaults”;}, Government Announces Circular Economy Package Will Stay, The UK government announced at the end of July that it will be enshrining the vast majority of the EU’s Circular Economy Package (CEP) into UK law after the country officially exits the European bloc, The UK government announced at the end of July that it will be enshrining the vast majority of the EU’s Circular Economy Package (CEP) into UK law after the country officially exits the European bloc.
This means that it will target a municipal recycling rate of 65 per cent by 2035, as well as limiting the amount of municipal waste that is allowed to go to landfill to 10 per cent in the same timeframe.
There will also be new restrictions on the materials that are allowed to be sent to landfill or for incineration in the UK. According to the government, these steps will build on its commitment to be a world leader in environmental legislation, Resource reported.
Environment minister Rebecca Pow said that the government wanted to “create a cleaner waste industry and reduce carbon emissions”.
“This new circular economy package takes us yet another step forward to transforming our waste industry,” she added.
Organisations within the UK’s waste industry have responded positively to the news that the CEP will be transposed into British law. The initial transposition deadline was 5 July 2020, but this was delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Libby Peak, head of resource policy at environmental think tank Green Alliance, said it was “great” to see the government sticking to the 65 per cent target for recycling municipal waste. “This suggests a resolve not to let the EU pull ahead from us on environmental ambitions. Now we need the right policies to follow through and deliver the required improvements,” she added.
The Green Alliance has, however, called for the government to set interim targets because these can improve the likelihood of the overall 65 per cent target being achieved by 2035.
Announcing the CEP at the end of July, the government also pointed to its Resources and Waste Strategy, which it stated provides an “ambitious plan to transform our waste industry”.
Among the steps outlined in this strategy are for there to be consistency across what materials can be recycled from household waste collections in England and introducing a deposit return scheme for single-use drinks containers.
The government will also be bringing in an Extended Producer Responsibility system that will see the organisations paying higher fees if they use packaging materials that are harder to reuse or recycle.
It also announced that it is consulting on proposals to bring in a new tax for businesses that import or produce plastic packaging that does not contain at least 30 per cent recycled content.
Earlier this year, we revealed that the Environment Agency had reported record levels of aluminium recycling in the first quarter of 2020. According to its data, some 40,653 tonnes of aluminium were collected for recycling in the UK during this period.
What’s more, the amount of aluminium collected for recycling in the UK in the first half of 2020 was 52 per cent higher than it was in 2019, with the Covid-19 lockdown cited as one of the reasons for the improvement in household recycling rates.
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