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SMEs 'need better facilities to manage waste'

Published On 25 May 2007 at 08:57:29

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are trying to reduce the amount of waste they produce, but there are not enough suitable facilities available to allow them to do so.

That's the opinion of John Cridland, the deputy director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who was responding to the government's new Waste Management Strategy.

In the government document, plans to encourage SMEs to reduce their waste were outlined and included a proposal to double the landfill tax in 2010.

However, Mr Cridland explained that businesses needed the facilities to recycle waste if the government scheme was to be successful.

"Reducing waste is an increasing priority for businesses, which know that using fewer resources brings both environmental and economic benefits," he added.

"But of course firms can only divert more waste from landfill if new waste facilities are available and many of these - too small to benefit from this week's planning reforms - are bogged down in the planning system."

Launching the government's strategy, environment secretary David Miliband said: "We need to not only recycle and reuse waste, but also prevent it in the first place.

"And there's a particular challenge for businesses to produce less waste with their products, so consumers have less of it to dispose of."

 

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