The current waste hierarchy should be overhauled to focus on preventing waste at source, according to a group representing engineers.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) said in a new report that the waste hierarchy, which was adopted in the 1990s by the UK Government as a tool to assist decision-making in waste management, still views waste as a problem rather than as a resource and therefore does not deliver the climate change mitigation for which it was designed.
It said a replacement hierarchy must acknowledge that reducing or preventing waste of all types is paramount and has by far the most beneficial effect on the environment.
In the report, which is an update of a 2009 document, IMechE argued that recycling (and composting), which sits on the third tier of the hierarchy, has been the “mistaken focus of UK government policy in recent years”, adding that recycling targets are not well-designed to achieve true climate change mitigation and market demand for recyclate is variable, leading to large stockpiles of unused recyclable materials.
It called for the replacement of the current waste hierarchy with a model that “genuinely delivers on the prevention of waste”. It added that where waste is inevitable and products not practically reusable, “careful consideration must be given to achieve optimum use of all waste streams”, meaning that some waste streams like metals and PET bottles are given a “material-prioritisation strategy”, while others like biodegradable materials are given an “energy-prioritisation strategy”.
It called too for the adoption of a zero-to-landfill approach rather than a zero-waste approach which it said was not a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed) target. And it urged legislators to focus on all waste streams, not just household.
