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Elliot Morely praises Hampshire's Efforts Last month, the Minister of State for the Environment,
Elliot Morley gave a speech to the Local Government Association, discussing
waste as a resource and the role that Local Authorities have to play regarding
non-municipal waste. The environment minister said that how local authorities
met their targets was up to them, so long as they produce results.
At the meeting held in Bournemouth, the minister reiterated his
previous conviction that local authorities were on track to meet their 17 per
cent target by the end of the year. Also speaking at the event was Bob Lisney (Assistant
Director, Natural Resources) from Hampshire County Council.
Mr Lisney argued that over the next few years a change in mindset was
essential to bring waste to the heart of local authority agenda, so that it
was no longer left on the fringe with waste officers.
He emphasised that of all the waste produced in the UK only seven per
cent was municipal and that more attention needed to be paid to commercial
waste. In response Mr Morley said that local authorities had an
important role to play helping businesses to cut their waste, because of their
high profile role in the community, as planning authorities and as large waste
producing organisations in their own right.
He said that local authorities must engage with the business community
and needed to lead by example by adopting their own green procurement
policies. He also praised various
projects and strategies that are ongoing around the country in pursuit of
public and business engagement to make waste a resource; projects such as the
Material Resources Strategy here in Hampshire. Mr Morley said, “…, Hampshire’s Material Resources
Strategy is a good example of holistic thinking on the planning side.
It aims to address the use of all material resources, including
municipal, construction, commercial and agricultural waste.
It is exactly this king of innovative thinking that we want to
encourage in local authorities.”
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