Feature Page

What Rubbish!

Here’s a good story! – Somerset is third in the country with regard to the amount of waste we recycle, so well done! But it is not good enough because the problem of waste is growing all the time. As householders you may be aware of this because the local Council is trying to encourage us to separate out different types of waste so that it can be recycled. But what about commercial waste because we produce significantly more than domestic refuse and maybe even creating waste in the form of packaging? However, we do not appear to be subjected to the same level of control or guidance as domestic customers and why do we have to pay to have rubbish collected when householders have it taken away for free?
Is there a better way, how big is the problem and what are our options?
Landfill has been the most common way of getting rid of our rubbish but we are running out of available land and it can pose a threat to the environment. The Kyoto Agreement says that we must reduce dependence on landfill by 65% by 2020. In fact the UK target is to reduce landfill to 20% of overall waste handling by 2020 and the government hope to achieve this by increasing landfill tax by 80%. Recycling is the main alternative at the moment and Wyvern Waste has taken a lead in introducing new sorting facilities at Taunton and Bridgwater. Several Somerset4Business members recently toured the Taunton site and were very impressed. Recycling will be forced further in future with legislation that will ensure the original manufacturer pays a levy on each domestic appliance that we throw out. That should mean he will design products to make recycling easier. New legislation will also mean that “difficult” materials like electrical components and circuit boards will have to be separated from the discarded product. Another alternative is to burn our rubbish and hopefully create energy. The residue might also be useful. People get nervous about this because of the potential threat of noxious gases and particulates escaping to atmosphere, but this need not be the case, especially for new processes like pyrolysis promoted by Wells based company, WP2. Pyrolysis drastically reduces the volume of waste by “baking” it at high temperature without using oxygen, so emissions to air are well within acceptable limits. Electricity will be produced as a by-product and we expect 15% of Somerset’s energy to be produced in this way in future.
The Government, via the Environment Agency, believes that taxation and penalties are the most effective way to achieve the planned changes, but what about incentives? Can businesses save money by avoiding waste or can they make money by reselling their waste? Like energy, the cost of waste will only increase and adversely affect potential profit so it needs to be taken seriously. Can we make it easier for business by paying for waste disposal from business rates? That might at least reduce the potential for fly tipping.
For information about waste you could visit the Environment Agency web site on www.environment-agency.gov.uk.

Mysteries of Rural Business

Somerset is special.
We know that but government does not seem to understand us. Lord Cameron, who currently chairs the Somerset Strategic Partnership, put his finger on it when he gave a talk to Chamber members recently. He said that the biggest misconception by politicians and government officials is that rural business is “farming” but only 4% of the rural economy is farming. The majority is in manufacturing and services.
Individual businesses may be small but there are a lot of them spread across the smaller towns and villages. In fact we realised that most of our members are in “rural” business, but none of them are farmers. This fitted well with my experience in dealing with the Regional Assembly and the Regional Development Agency. Both are developing regional strategies for growth but they seem to see potential for growth coming only from the larger towns like Bristol and Plymouth. This means that any plan they develop would miss the point about our particular business mix with a myriad of small and very small businesses tucked away in the countryside. We would effectively be ignored.
Somerset is a lovely place in which to live but rural communities need a wide range of thriving businesses to sustain them. We need to ensure that the business environment is conducive to growth and that, as a minimum, we can offer protection against the competitive pressures, especially from overseas. Our local politicians might understand how our economy is structured but most politicians are urbanites and spend their time in London. How do we get them to understand or take interest?
Farming is important, but struggling. We must encourage other businesses otherwise rural communities, and facilities such as schools and shops, will risk further decline, and that is not in the best interests of visitors or residents.
Somerset is beautiful for good reason and it is not just the scenery, because we also have an excellent community spirit. Don’t let politicians spoil our world. They need to understand that we have a strong local economy but it is very different from Bristol and Plymouth. I hope we do not lose out in the battle for attention and support.