EEF believes that industry has a significant role to play in waste prevention and using waste as a resource wherever possible. Manufacturers are not only the producers of waste, but must also provide the solutions to many of the challenges we face in reducing waste.
We agreed that designing products that use less material overall and/or include less harmful substances plays an important role in reducing the amount or hazardousness of waste produced. However, waste minimisation initiatives should always look at impacts across the life-cycle of products and services, from design and production through to consumption and end-of-life management, to ensure that environmental impacts are not displaced.
Furthermore, we argued that the international aspect of supply chains needs to be taken into account when developing policies. UK companies compete with developing economies where environmental standards are not always implemented with the same degree of enforcement, and may even be absent altogether. EEF believes that using voluntary agreements or supply chain pressures to facilitate change sends out the right signal to these markets.
In addition, retailers and consumers need to be educated about the environmental impact of products. Encouraging more sustainable product and process design can only address the issues to a certain degree as long as consumers continue to drive unsustainable consumption patterns.