There are a number of current reasons why the two coming together in this way makes sense. But, the actual origins of the proposal are several years in past, when a confederation of recycling and waste bodies was talked about.
This month’s announcement at least brings the talks process to an end as this has dragged on long enough. It comes almost a year after Defra kicked the industry by saying it was stepping back from being involved. All the various parties in the sector, including CIWM and ESA, immediately responded to the Department with expressions of serious concern at the decision.
However, there seems to have been little response in the way of about turn on policy from Defra. Maybe this has been the spur to CIWM and ESA coming together now. It makes sense ahead of the General Election to have some positive suggestions to put forward although this work should have started some time ago.
However, Resources & Waste UK has two immediate challenges. One is to convince the members of both organisations that the set-up is worthwhile. There will undoubtedly be a cost and a creation of new committees and senior posts. One concern is that it will weaken the voices of both CIWM and ESA – the proof will be in whether Resources & Waste UK really can make its voice heard.
The second challenge will be to integrate the committee structure of the two organisations on the technical front. How this might work was not spelled out at the launch event and it will be interesting to see whether client and contractor issues can be discussed in a fair and positive way when these arise.
For, going forward, the UK is moving well beyond the days of Margaret Thatcher and the Local Government Act with the call to put all work out to tender. Even the Conservatives now seem to be in favour of local authorities providing more services and not necessarily putting work out to tender. For the private sector this has to be a concern as income streams could reduce.
The question has to be asked as to how Resources & Waste UK will handle this topic. Will the waste companies be so keen to talk to their local authority counterparts in CIWM when they may start to lose work to the public sector?
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