Pennon, the parent company of Viridor, the largest UK-owned resources and waste company, Viridor, has welcomed the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy which reflects the key sector commitments the company has been campaigning for.
Corporate Affairs & Investor Relations Director Sarah Heald said the strategy featured ambitious plans to boost recycling levels, simplify the system for consumers, and ensure packaging is designed with its recyclability in mind.
She added: “This long-term policy framework has the potential to unleash private sector investment and Pennon stands by to make major investment in new UK recycling infrastructure.”
The two businesses look forward to seeing Defra implementing its plans for extended producer responsibility and establishing how efforts to have packaging producers paid the full costs for collecting and recycling their materials is harnessed for crucial infrastructure investment.
Investment in recycling and reprocessing must be progressive and serve UK resource efficiency requirements beyond the immediate for the next 20 to 30 years.
Recycling rates for England dropped by 0.3% in figures released by Defra in December (to 44.8% in the 2017/18 financial year, compared with 45.1% in the previous period).
The provision for clear labelling for consumers and consistent household collections - with the Government specifying a “core set of materials” to be collected – is expected to help remove confusion, reinvigorate recycling figures and prevent the contamination of valuable waste streams.
Pennon and Viridor have consistently raised these issues with Defra and highlighted them in the annual Viridor Recycling Index, which tracks public opinion on recycling.