The report - 'Waste as a Resource: A sustainable Way Forward' - advocates an approach that prioritises waste streams according to their usefulness to materials and emissions reduction, as well as to their utility to the wider energy system.
The report is an update of a previous IMechE report, issued in 2009, and builds on that report's advocacy to view waste not as a problem but rather as a resource. This requires a further rethink of recycling and waste policy.
In the report, the IMechE recommends that the government should:
- Replace the waste hierarchy with a model that genuinely delivers on the prevention of waste. The existing waste hierarchy has outlived its usefulness, the report states, and there needs to be a considerable reassessment of the way we view and deal with waste throughout the UK. The primary premise of its replacement must acknowledge that reducing or preventing waste of all types is paramount. Not producing the waste...