I noted with interest PF’s news story on today’s report from the environment, food and rural affairs select committee (‘Committee slams government’s waste strategy’, publicfinance.co.uk, January 19).
The committee criticises the government’s waste strategy for focusing on domestic rather than business rubbish, which represents 90% of the total.
Is this not another example of the government’s failure to address business-related issues, preferring instead to focus on the general public?
For example, what is being done to encourage or require business to reduce the amount of packaging of goods? Around 5 million tonnes of annual household rubbish is packaging and it makes up almost a fifth of all household waste. It will cost householders in England £4.8bn to bin over the next six years, that's £236 a household, unless excess packaging is cut.
Local authorities are able to prosecute companies that over-package their goods under a European Union packaging directive that entered UK law in 1999. However, the rules banning wasteful packaging have too many loopholes to be effective and the maximum fine of only £5,000 does not pose any real deterrent for large companies.
The last prosecution for excess packaging was in May 2006 when a Cambridgeshire biscuit firm was fined for filling its tins only two-thirds full. Tougher laws and serious fines to crack down on excessive packaging are needed to protect consumers from packaging that they don’t want and that is costing them money to dispose of.
Another issue concerns road congestion. We are constantly told that we have to reduce the numbers of cars on our roads, particularly in peak periods. But there is some evidence to support the theory that the bulk of road congestion, road damage and road noise is caused, not by cars, but by the large numbers of heavy goods vehicles on our roads, particularly in urban areas and at peak periods.
A heavy goods vehicle was estimated in 2004 to have 2.3 times the impact on highways compared with a private car, and HGVs have grown larger since then. Why then doesn’t the government address the issues of HGVs on our roads? Obviously, there is only limited scope for transferring freight to rail but other solutions are available such as road pricing to discourage HGVs from using urban roads in peak periods.
Fundamentally, it probably comes down to the fact that governments would rather impinge burdens on the general public than take on business lobbies.
Malcolm Prowle is professor of business performance at Nottingham Business School
