A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON WASTE MINIMIZATION - A CASE-STUDY OF THE EAST MIDLANDS OF ENGLAND

The UK Government's White Paper of 1995, 'Making Waste Work', emphasis es the role of key stakeholders in driving forward the widespread adop tion of waste minimisation practice. Industry is challenged to meet a range of targets and have environmental management systems in place. T he Government's contribution is underpinned by the activities of the E nvironment Agency and the Environmental Technology Best Practice Progr amme. This article presents findings from a survey of waste minimisati on developments in the East Midlands of England. Despite a national wa ste strategy there are clear variations in the extent of waste minimis ation developments across the region. The reasons for this are many an d complex and a sizeable gap exists, in many cases, between policy and its implementation. Traditionally, the UK has employed a 'top down ap proach' in which legislative decisions are taken at the centre and the n executed within the constraints of the local context. The findings s uggest that much greater consideration needs to be taken of local cons traints if waste minimisation developments are to be successful. Well structured initiatives that have been rigorously planned and have util ised the available resources have proved very successful and significa nt financial savings and waste reductions have been made. Surprisingly , few of the key environmental organisations surveyed had a waste mini misation policy. There remains significant barriers to the uptake of w aste minimisation programmes, especially from Small to Medium Enterpri ses. A number of external funding sources have been utilised by projec ts but future funding will probably come from the participating compan ies. A wide range of supporting networks exist that could be utilised in the future. There is a need for an overarching, regional organisati on to co-ordinate future developments so as to avoid duplication and e fficiently use all available resources. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.