2 December, 2024 | Environmental legislation, Waste Management
I am shocked that the 50th anniversary of the first environment control legislation in the 1970s, and specifically the UK’s Control of Pollution Act 1974 (CoPA) has received so little attention and celebration. So I have written a Comment piece on CoPA’s Golden Jubilee for resource.co, one of the leading online news sites read by (UK) waste and resource management professionals.
The waste and resource sector as we know it only exists due to strong and effectively enforced legislation to create a ‘level playing field’, which in principle should enable investment without fear of being undercut by lower standard facilities or indeed by waste criminals. Prior to legislation in the 1970s, the norm for collected wastes was disposal in uncontrolled or partially controlled ‘landfills’ which were often permanently on fire. As I have documented in my recent magnum opus, we have come a long way in 50 years, but we also still have a long way to go. That was illustrated starkly by the announcement in November 2024 of the closure of a UK state-of-the-art plastics recycling facility after just two years.
28 February, 2018 | Conference, Publication, Waste Management
DCW’s February column for the CIWM Journal focused on the topical subject of marine plastics. He reported back on ‘Oceans 21’, the latest Development Finance Forum organised by the German Development Bank KfW, where he led a workshop on marine litter. The conclusions were clear: the amount of plastics entering the oceans is at least an order of magnitude greater than estimates of the visible quantities in the oceans or on beaches – so the first priority is to ‘turn off the tap’. And the most effective way to do that is to extend municipal solid waste collection in developing countries to all people and to eliminate uncontrolled dumping and burning; our best judgement was that this could reduce the weight of plastics entering the oceans by 50-70%.
29 December, 2017 | Publication, Waste Management
In his first monthly column in the CIWM Journal as CIWM President, Professor David C. Wilson has revisited his Presidential address. His overall theme for the year is solid waste management as a key utility service, underpinning modern society. Within that three strands are to avoid complacency when it comes to protecting public health and the environment; the continuing move from the linear ‘make – use – dispose’ model to a more circular economy; and the global waste crisis, with more than 3 billion people lacking access to a basic solid waste management service.
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DCW writes: ‘“Let us work together to promote the fact that solid waste management is one of the essential utility services underpinning our society. Let us ensure that the regular, daily delivery of that service to protect public health and the environment is not undermined, either by on-going cuts in local authority spending or by deregulation following Brexit”. And again: “It is simply unacceptable that 40% of the World’s population lack this basic utility service that we take for granted. We need to ensure that waste collection is extended to all people, and that uncontrolled dumping and open burning is eliminated.”
