Waste Managment Plan for England

The Waste Managment Plan for England was published in 2021 and fulfils the requirements of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 which requires a waste managment plan to be reviewed every six years. It is a high level, non-site specific document focussing on waste arisings and their managment. It also provides an analysis of the current Waste Management situation in England and evalutates how the Plan will support implementation of the objectives and provisions of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.

What the Waste Managment Plan must contain

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 specifiy what information the Plan must contain (with changes made by the Waste (Circular Economy) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 which came into force on 1 October 2020:

• An analysis of the current waste management situation in the geographical entity concerned, as well as the measures to be taken to improve environmentally sound preparing for reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal of waste, and an evaluation of how the Plan will support the implementation of the objectives and provisions listed in the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011;
• The type, quantity and source of waste generated within the territory, the waste likely to be shipped from or to the national territory, and an evaluation of the development of waste streams in the future;
• Existing major disposal and recovery installations, including any special arrangements for waste oils, hazardous waste, waste containing significant amounts of critical raw materials, or waste streams addressed by specific legislation;
• An assessment of the need for the closure of existing waste installations and for additional waste installation infrastructure in accordance with the proximity principle. An assessment of the investments and other financial means, including for local authorities, required to meet those needs is carried out;
• Information on the measures to attain the objective of diverting waste suitable for recycling or other recovery (in particular municipal waste) away from landfill or in other strategic documents;
• An assessment of existing waste collection schemes, including the material and territorial coverage of separate collection and measures to improve its operation, of any exceptions to requirements to collect waste separately, and of the need for new collection schemes;
• Sufficient information on the location criteria for site identification and on the capacity of future disposal or major recovery installations, if necessary;
• General waste management policies, including planned waste management technologies and methods, or policies for waste posing specific management problems;
• Measures to combat and prevent all forms of littering and to clean up litter;
• Appropriate qualitative or quantitative indicators and targets, including on the quantity of generated waste and its treatment and on municipal waste that is disposed of or subject to energy recovery;
• Waste management plans must:
  • include the measures to be taken so that, by 2035:
    • the preparing for re-use and the recycling of municipal waste is increased to a minimum of 65% by weight.
    • the amount of municipal waste landfilled is reduced to 10% or less of the total amount of municipal waste generated (by weight).

References

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