Call for firmer action on waste
25th September 2007
SITA UK Chief Executive called upon the government for firmer action to reflect European waste management successes.
Per-Anders Hjort, CEO of SITA UK, came to Cornwall on Monday 24th September to bring a personal perspective, based on many years of working at a senior level in Europe, to the Waste Neutral conference at Eden.
His presentation followed one by Daniel Instone, the Head of Waste Strategy at Defra, in which he described the shared responsibility for waste and called upon business in the sector to invest in new technologies to recycle and recover to reduce the dependency on landfill.
On recycling, Per-Anders echoed the focus and he was unequivocal about the need for better sorting at source. Householders, businesses and industrial organisations were reminded that it is up to them to segregate the waste as they produce it, as to mix it up and hope it would be done later would greatly reduce the amount that can be recycled effectively. He explained that “The company is investing heavily in improving recycling in Cornwall and in developing energy recovery for the county.”
He continued: “ Europe’s big success is in driving environmental change. It is the best way for us to compete globally. We cannot compete with countries like China and India on wages but we can on energy and waste efficiency. Many parts of Europe are celebrating their achievements of Energy from Waste and we should be following their example.”