Notwithstanding recent floods and blizzards, members of the Exec and our CEO have been busy representing LARAC members at many meetings. We thought it might be informative to start keeping members abreast of the interactions and meetings we are having 'behind the scenes', as well as those we can report on. It really is like the proverbial iceberg - so much more is taking place than maybe immediately apparent.
There have been no less than 5 meetings with Defra in recent weeks regarding the next round of consultations on consistency, DRS and EPR.
Exec members and our CEO have attended extended meetings giving the local authority positions and informing the government on the effects of the various implications of DRS, packaging reform and responsibility and consistency of collections on local authorities. The meetings were long and involved and we feel it is very important that we have a place at each of these tables representing our members as new government policies, strategies and directives are formed.
We have recently also attended a couple of meetings with the LGA -
The first looked at looking at the impacts of the RAWS on different levels of local government, and different types of government, be it rural, urban, different collection processes and contracts. It was a good opportunity to drill down and tease out the differing effects of DRS and EPR. It is a definite advantage to engage with other local authorities and to try and find a common, cohesive lobbying position.
The second looked at the consistency in recycling consultation and involved various LA bodies, WRAP and Defra. The level of examination was very detailed and again this proved a valuable arena to further communicate our position and to learn about and consider the impacts of problems faced by other sectors of the industry.
Detailed meeting reports are exchanged between attendees after every meeting so that we can learn for further meetings and keep our messages on track. Directly we can communicate findings and developments with our members, we will be issuing further briefing documents.
We have been down to OPRL on a couple of occasions. As a member of the board, the quarterly board meeting is a commitment of ours. LARAC involvement is important as lots of work on consistency of labelling and communications on recycling is carried out here, plus there is future work to be done on EPR. We again are gratified to have influence as a board member.
Our quarterly meeting with WRAP of course involved talk of the RAWS work being done, and the role of WRAP within that, and in helping LAs have easier access to information sharing. We looked forward to the 2020 RecycleNow campaign in mid-March – which will focus on plastic milk bottles – an easy target, you might think, but it’s surprising how many are not currently being captured. We also looked forward to the upcoming new Love Food Hate Waste campaign. With the Plastics Pact, compostable plastic and the carbon impacts of collections, not to mention the markets update with its many problems, there was a lot to discuss and to think around how to help local authorities through the maelstrom of influences and demands being made on their presentations of materials to market.
We were defeated by the floods on just one occasion, and were unable to get to a meeting with Zero Waste Scotland, but that has been rearranged, and we will report back.
So, that’s is what has been going on behind the scenes here over the last 6 weeks or so. We will update our members, through briefings and meeting reports as often and as fully as we can. And as I type, I’m aware that three more meetings have just been attended by Andrew Bird and Lee Marshall; we will report on those in our next meetings update in April.
New meeting reports available to members:
- 02 Mar Resource and Waste Strategy Forum – reported by Lee Marshall, LARAC CEO
- 20 Jan Wood Waste Classification – reported by Lee Marshall, LARAC CEO
Meetings attended by the Exec so far this year:
- 28 Jan DEFRA Cross Cutting Stakeholder Group – attended by Lee Marshall
- 4 Feb Defra Liaison on DRS – attended by Durk Reyner
- 10 Feb LGA – Wrap up meeting for waste and recycling data project – attended by Lee Marshall
- 11 Feb OPRL Board – attended by Lee Marshall
- 12 Feb WRAP Liaison - attended by Lee Marshall, Carole Taylor and Dan Roberts
- 20 Feb LGA – Consistency in recycling – LA meeting - Attended by Carole Taylor and Dan Roberts
- 27 Feb Defra Liaison – LARAC briefing - attended by Lee Marshall, Carole Taylor, Dianne Hewgill, Maria Warner
- 28 Feb Packaging Reform Sounding Board – Targets, payments, definitions – attended by Andrew Bird
- 02 Mar Resource and Waste Strategy Forum – attended by Lee Marshall
- 03 Mar DEFRA Cross Cutting Stakeholder Group - attended by Lee Marshall
- 04 Mar OPRL – attended by Lee Marshall
- 05 Mar ACP – attended by Andrew Bird
