UK business slams 'sloppy' environmental laws
claims is a £4 billion annual bill as a result of 'sloppy'
environmental laws, report Anthony Fletcher and Phil Taylor.
A report published by the Confederation of British Industry yesterday claims that too many regulations aimed at protecting the environment are badly designed and poorly implemented.
"Firms are not trying to avoid their environmental responsibilities," said John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general. "They want to comply but they also want the government to help them do the right thing in a cost-effective way.
"Too much environmental regulation is badly designed and poorly implemented. We are not anti regulation or against rigorous enforcement but we make no apology for complaining about sloppy laws that are implemented poorly and enforced in an ill-considered fashion."
The report says the £4bn annual business cost of compliance compares well with other countries but the problems with design and enforcement mean it is higher than it should be.
One piece of legislation that comes under fire in the CBI report is the EU Landfill Directive, which comes into force in the UK on 14 July. This is designed to reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfill sites and encourage the use of recycling and alternative waste disposal and treatment methods, according to a spokesperson for UK environmental consultancy Robert Long.
She told In-Pharmatechnologist.com that implementation of the Directive in the UK was dramatically increasing the costs for landfill disposals, both for industry and landfill operators. And one result is that smaller landfill operators are going out of business, reducing the number of sites available to receive waste.
The UK Environment Agency estimates that the number of landfill sites available to take hazardous waste from industries such as pharmaceuticals will reduce from around 200 at present to around 12, forcing the industry to seek alternative means of treating and disposing of its waste. The Agency estimates that this could raise the cost of disposal from £150 million to £500 million a year.
In its latest report, the CBI criticises the Environment Agency for being insufficiently sensitive to the competitive environment in which business operates. For example, it says enforcement is still inconsistent and not targeted on areas where there is most environmental risk.
The report says UK companies face a high number of inspections compared with countries such as the US, France and Italy. And there is a growing trend for the agency to charge firms enforcement fees, a pattern not replicated in other EU states.
In addition, the report goes on to criticise Defra's (the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) track record on implementing EU legislation in a business-friendly fashion, as well as its ability to influence EU policies. Specifically, it notes that the EU Landfill Directive has seen delays in key decisions and, even now, firms remain uncertain about the disposal and treatment waste.
The CBI argues that the UK's environmental performance is improving, with the OECD placing the country in the mid-range of developed nations. It points to cuts in carbon emissions and improvements in air and water quality.
Indeed, one fear is that a reduction in landfill in the UK will see more companies turning to the use of incineration as a means of disposal, for example being burnt in cement and lime kilns.
Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth claims that the 12 remaining sites will be unable to deal with the estimated 5.2 million tonnes of hazardous waste produced each year, while the energy-intensive cement industry is keen to burn hazardous waste as it is cheaper than conventional fuel. Kilns already burn around 150,000 tonnes of `substitute fuels', including chemical waste, tyres and sewage sludge, it notes.
Friends of the Earth is particularly concerned that the Environment Agency is mulling plans to allow this sort of disposal without consultation with the local community, according to the group's waste campaigner Anna Watson.
However, some regulators believe that it is business that needs to get its act together. There is certainly a great deal of confusion within the manufacturing industry about the regulations - a recent LogicaCMG survey of attitudes to the upcoming EU Emissions Trading Scheme for example suggests that many companies are still not sufficiently prepared. Only 51 per cent think that they will be ready on time.
The survey also found that levels of knowledge of the scheme were low for a regulatory change of such a scale. LogicaCMG found that only one third of companies across Europe were very well informed, slightly higher in Germany and Spain, and three out of every 10 companies admitted to being poorly informed. These levels indicate a significant lack of in-depth knowledge for a scheme with such far-reaching impact, just a few months away from its intended start date.
The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is one of the policies being introduced across Europe to tackle emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and combat the serious threat of climate change. The scheme comes into force on 1 January 2005.
Nonetheless, the CBI plans to urge the government to deliver on pledges to implement more business-friendly enforcement of regulation.
"Defra's review of its sustainable development strategy gives us a great opportunity to take stock and find ways of using regulation more sensibly," said Cridland. "We want to work constructively with the Environment Agency and the government but they have got to start delivering on business concerns."
