Material Resources Strategy - Aims and objectives

Our vision for managing material resources in Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton to 2020 is that:

We will change the way we use resources to maximise efficiency and minimise wastage.

This vision is underpinned by four aims that reflect the principles of resource productivity and the waste hierarchy:

1. To extract primary resources only where it can be shown that the need cannot be met in a more sustainable way.
2. To change minds and behaviours to use all resources efficiently and minimise wastage at all stages of production and consumption.
3. Where waste is produced, to maximise opportunities for business and the community to reuse, recycle and compost such wastes to produce sustainable products.
4. To recover value from, and dispose of, unavoidable waste (that mixed waste left over after reuse, recycling and composting) using sustainable means, as far as possible avoiding the landfilling of biodegradable or recyclable waste.
   
   

The key outcomes are as follows:

• Behaviour change achieved to maximise reuse, recycling and recovery.
• Overall year on year waste growth reduced to 1% by 2010 and 0.5% by 2020.
• An overall recycling rate of 60% by 2020.
• Cost of recycling to private and public sectors is optimised.
• Net self-sufficiency in dealing with all waste arisings by 2016.
• Materials and energy recovery maximised from unavoidable waste.
• Use of landfill for all waste materials reduced to a minimum practicable level by 2020.
• Demand for new minerals reduced to minimum practicable levels, with extraction of land-won sand and gravel reduced as far as practicable.
• New sites and facilities provided to meet needs in a sustainable and efficient way.
• A supportive policy framework and all sectors of the community involved in delivering solutions and change.