My proposal is to replace current policies mostly administered and executed through local government with a new task force headed by a minister reporting to Cabinet. I envisage a lean top level HQ executing policies, plans and responsibilities through local authorities.
This new organisation would need to be centrally funded because initially at least costs will be high and council taxpayers should not be asked to contribute. Local level organisation would need to be co-located with local government. As current arrangements are largely ineffective due to compromises being made at local government level, executive authority should remain inside the new task force.
Current policies and plans for waste disposal rely largely on public buy in. Many people do re-cycle and attempt to comply with waste disposal directives but a number do not and it does not take many dissenters to ruin our environment. To achieve greater take-up and observance of waste disposal regulations a proportion of the new task force’s budget should be allocated to assisting in the costs of hazardous/toxic waste disposal in an attempt to make legal disposal more attractive than illegal fly tipping.
Opening times for re-cycling sites should be extended to make them more user friendly. Builders and others in the construction industry should be incentivised to re-cycle to the maximum extent. Producers of hazardous/toxic waste should be licensed, supervised and audited at very regular intervals to ensure compliance with re-cycling directives. This, of course, is another budgetary commitment.
In parallel, policing of waste disposal should be beefed up and more arrests and arraignments are needed for signalling and disincentives. Responsibility for this currently lies with local government and if needed the laws should be changed to make this a police responsibility. Fortunately, our current government is promising many more officers; perhaps manpower to police new regulation will not be too difficult to manage.
As a first step, a nation-wide clear up campaign should be mounted. Many members of the public will respond but additional manpower will be required.
Roadside verges in urban and rural areas, on main and arterial roads and motorways are massively contaminated with all kinds of rubbish, some of it hazardous. Clearly, protective equipment and clothing would be essential and other agencies would need to be involved, for example Highways England but authority must be centrally maintained at task force level. For manpower, I recommend prisoners, young offenders, and others in custody judged to be safe to use should be used to carry out a National Clean Up. Motorists who would normally be fined for a variety of offences should also be used as part of the clean-up force. Supervision and safety should be provided through locally recruited and trained professional staff. I envisage using retired military senior NCOs and retired police officers as the core of a professional force, augmented by suitable cleared and trained local people.
In parallel with these steps a publicity campaign to educate our people on the need for correct and careful waste disposal would be required. This would need to be interesting, perhaps amusing, light of touch and executed to reach all.
The plan above is produced in response to a deteriorating waste disposal problem in this country. It is relatively simple but would be expensive to initiate and would need an annual budget sufficient to ensure continued viability. I’m not a politician but buy-in for the long term from all parties would be essential. I have not mentioned the World-wide waste disposal problems, plastic in the oceans, hazards to sustainability, global warming, dangers to wild and marine life but our national waste disposal situation is all of a part in an accelerating World-wide emergency. We really do need to do something about it.
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