Waste targets and enforcements - Should businesses pay?

The world of recycling and reuse seems to get busier by the day. I was recently at the AGM of the London Community Resource Network where I was standing to be elected as a new trustee to the board. In my election address I’d said that I felt that amidst all the gloom of the recession there are clear signs that reuse is really climbing the political as well as the economic agenda.

With reuse being 12 times more effective at creating jobs and at creating better jobs at that, the time has come to really promote it and the community sector has a great opportunity to be right at the front of that growth. I was asked whether I felt there should be any legislation to force householders to recycle more and I replied that actually I thought there should be legally binding targets imposed upon business to recycle and reuse their waste. Not an opinion that will go down well in board rooms but when you consider that businesses produce around 3 – 4 times the amount of waste that is produced by households you’ll appreciate where I’m coming from.

When you also consider that businesses have far more control over their waste than households or local authorities then I think the argument is conclusive. Businesses can and should look to significantly increase their recycling and reuse of waste and if they can’t then the government should set targets for them.

Colin Crooks, CEO

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Moving the agenda on - Reuse

I was very honoured last week to be asked to be the key note speaker at Islington councils “ Giant Green Awards” for local businesses who’d gone the extra mile to do their bit for the environment. There were some fabulously bold initiatives such as the St Lukes Centre who have converted their entire car park into a vegetable garden – radical stuff and life enhancing too. This and all the other award winners were active and real testimony that supported my invocation for all of us to go the extra mile for the environment. – To push into new territory.

In regards to waste of course, recycling has started to become a social norm at home and at work - we’re not there yet but it is clearly catching. But I think we need to start moving the agenda on; we need to start reusing.

Reusing massively increases the carbon benefits that can e won but perhaps even more importantly it can generate real, sustainable worthwhile jobs. A recent EU report shows that Reusing a 1000 tonnes of product can generate 24 jobs while recycling it would create only 2 and those 2 would be very basic. At Green-Works we see the real impact of that sort of ratio as we are able to create so many real opportunities for training and employment creation often for people who are on the margins. So when you next want to throw away that table that TV that computer please ask if it can reused first!

Colin Crooks CEO