Policy context
Since 1975, the EU has been introducing laws to help minimise the harmful effects of waste and encourage Europeans to conserve natural resources. This has driven waste-management legislation and practices in the United Kingdom, and every other EU member state.
It is the UK Government’s policy that the UK will remain bound by existing EU environmental law, subject to possible future review, but this is not legally straightforward. There is currently no clarity as to what status commission guidance will have post-brexit.
The European Waste Framework Directive came into force in December 2010. It focuses on waste prevention and on turning EU member states into societies that recycle waste.
In December 2017, 193 members of the UN signed a resolution committing to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds by 2025 and to prioritise policies and measures to avoid marine litter and micro-plastics entering the marine environment.
The EU Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy was adopted in January 2018. It intends to transform the way plastic products are designed, used, produced and recycled in order to reduce the value of plastic that is lost from the economy each year after a very short use.
In July 2019 South Ribble Borough Council declared a climate emergency, highlighting the potentially damaging effects of climate change on the health and wellbeing of our residents. The declaration seeks to minimise carbon emissions into the environment and generally protect, improve and minimise our impact on the environment.