The National Waste Strategy is a policy

Policy

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...

 of the government of the United Kingdom, and in particular the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...

 (Defra), intended to foster a move to sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 in waste management

Waste management

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...

 within Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

.

Structure

The Environment Act 1995

Environment Act 1995

The Environment Act 1995 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which created a number of new agencies and set new standards for environmental management...

 added a requirement to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requiring the Secretary of State

Secretary of State (United Kingdom)

In the United Kingdom, a Secretary of State is a Cabinet Minister in charge of a Government Department ....

, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is a UK cabinet-level position in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the successor to the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport...

, to prepare a National Waste Strategy for England and Wales

England and Wales

England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

 and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Scottish Environment Protection Agency

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland’s environmental regulator. Its main role is to protect and improve Scotland's environment...

, a Strategy for Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The Strategy must include:

• A statement of policies for attaining the statutory objectives of the 1990 Act;
• Provisions relating to:
  • The type, quantity and origin of waste to be recovered or disposed of;
  • General technical requirements; and
  • Any special requirements for particular wastes.

The statutory objectives are:

• Ensuring that waste
  Waste
  Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
  
   is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment
  Environment (biophysical)
  The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
  
   and, in particular, without:
  • Risk
    Risk
    Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity will lead to a loss . The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists . Potential losses themselves may also be called "risks"...
    
     to water
    Water
    Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
    
    , air, soil
    Soil
    Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
    
    , plant
    Plant
    Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
    
    s or animal
    Animal
    Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
    
    s;
  • Causing nuisance
    Nuisance
    Nuisance is a common law tort. It means that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public or private. A public nuisance was defined by English scholar Sir J. F...
    
     through noise
    Noise
    In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
    
     or odours; or
  • Adversely affecting the countryside or places of special interest.
• Establishing an integrated and adequate network of waste disposal installations, taking account of the best available technology not involving excessive costs
• Ensuring that the network referred to above enables:
  • The European Community as a whole to become self-sufficient
    Self-sufficiency
    Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy...
    
     in waste disposal, and the Member States
    Member State of the European Union
    A member state of the European Union is a state that is party to treaties of the European Union and has thereby undertaken the privileges and obligations that EU membership entails. Unlike membership of an international organisation, being an EU member state places a country under binding laws in...
    
     individually to move towards that aim, taking into account geographical
    Geography
    Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
    
     circumstances or the need for specialised installations for certain types of waste; and
  • Waste to be disposed of in one of the nearest appropriate installations, by means of the most appropriate methods and technologies in order to ensure a high level of protection for the environment and public health.
• Encouraging the prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness, in particular by:
  • The development of clean technologies
    Clean technology
    Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy , information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental...
    
     more sparing in their use of natural resources
    Natural Resources
    Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who"...
    
    ;
  • The technical development and marketing
    Marketing
    Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
    
     of products designed so as to make no contribution or to make the smallest possible contribution, by the nature of their manufacture
    Manufacturing
    Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
    
    , use or final disposal, to increasing the amount or harmfulness of waste and pollution
    Pollution
    Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
    
     hazard
    Hazard
    A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or environment. Most hazards are dormant or potential, with only a theoretical risk of harm; however, once a hazard becomes "active", it can create an emergency situation. A hazard does not exist when it is not...
    
    s; and
  • The development of appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substances contained in waste destined for recovery.

WS2000

The first version of the Strategy for England was published on 25 May 2000. By 2007 Defra reported that:

• Recycling and composting of waste had nearly quadrupled since 1996-97, achieving 27% in 2005-06;
• The recycling of packaging waste had increased from 27% to 56% since 1998;
• Less waste is being landfilled, with a 9% fall between 2000–01 and 2004–05; and
• Waste growth was being reduced with local authority domestic and business waste collections growing much less quickly than the economy of the United Kingdom
  Economy of the United Kingdom
  The economy of the United Kingdom is the sixth-largest national economy in the world measured by nominal GDP and seventh-largest measured by purchasing power parity , and the third-largest in Europe measured by nominal GDP and second-largest measured by PPP...
  
   at 0.5% per year.

WS2007

The latest version of the Strategy for England was published in 2007. Its main proposals are to:

• Incentivise
  Incentive
  In economics and sociology, an incentive is any factor that enables or motivates a particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. It is an expectation that encourages people to behave in a certain way...
  
   efforts to reduce, re-use, recycle
  Recycling
  Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
  
   waste and recover energy
  Energy
  In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
  
   from waste;
• Reform regulation
  Regulation
  Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
  
   to drive the reduction of waste and diversion from landfill
  Landfill
  A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
  
   while reducing cost
  Cost
  In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this...
  
  s to compliant
  Regulatory compliance
  In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Regulatory compliance describes the goal that corporations or public agencies aspire to in their efforts to ensure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and...
  
   business
  Business
  A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
  
   and the regulatory agencies;
• Target action on materials, products and sectors with the greatest scope for improving environmental and economic
  Economics
  Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
  
   outcomes;
• Stimulate investment
  Investment
  Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
  
   in collection, recycling and recovery infrastructure
  Infrastructure
  Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
  
  , and markets for recovered materials that will maximise the value of materials and energy recovered; and
• Improve national, regional and local governance
  Governance
  Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
  
  , with a clearer performance and institutional framework to deliver better coordinated action and services on the ground.