Guest speakers included Angelos Bacopoulos from the Greater Toronto Authority; Linda Crichton from Enviros, who carried out the studies leading to the reports; and Jens Brodersen from the  European Environment Agency’s Waste Topic Centre in Copenhagen.

A multi-sector audience was told that it is very difficult to make accurate comparisons between countries, as each country defines waste differently. Instead of true recycling percentages, many countries report material diverted from landfill, based on the amount they landfilled in 1995. Many also include construction and commercial waste in their figures, whereas others don’t. The reports try to find a way through the confusion and, for the first time, allow some direct comparison of recycling and resource recovery performance.

Members of the Forum were told that the best performing countries in Europe and North America rely on well developed recycling and energy recovery infrastructure. The highest levels of diversion from landfill occur in smaller communities that have strong policies combined with economic instruments that provide a financial incentive to recycle and process waste rather than landfill it.

The audience heard that amounts of waste produced are growing;
in Europe by an average of 2% per year, and in North America by
an average of nearly 4% per year. Many countries and US States are now having to revise their long term diversion targets downwards because of this growth, and many countries are struggling to increase recycling performance at the same level as growth in waste to landfill.

In Hampshire, the County Council is one of the partners in Project Integra, a countywide strategy to deal with household waste. The meeting heard that Project Integra has just hit a recycling level of 25% for household waste, and that nearly 80% of households have recyclables collected from their home. It was also explained that Project Integra is on track to recycle up to 32%, and divert up to 84% of its waste within the next four years.

Bob Lisney, a director of Project Integra, is also Chair of the Resource Recovery Forum (RRF), a national body to optimise resource use. He said, "For the first time in the UK we are able to make better comparisons about our performance, nationally and locally. This event has shown what the true recycling and resource recovery picture is in North America and Europe, and we have shown that in only five years since Project Integra started, we are now up there with the world leaders, and costs compare favourably too. This is proof that Hampshire’s partnership approach works."

The reports are only available to RRF members, but information can be found on the web site, www.residua.com.

For photos of speakers at this event, contact Karen Bridle at Hampshire County Council on 01962 847003.

For further information about the reports, contact Kit Strange of Residua Ltd on 01756 709800, or see the web site www.residua.com