Waste Strategy for England 2007
Product and materials re-use
34.
As well as reducing waste, there is scope to draw more value from production materials already in use, including both whole products and component parts from both the business and household sectors.
35.
The Government will continue to support a range of initiatives to help develop re-use and re-manufacture, where market opportunities appear not to be fully exploited, through the BREW programme and support to the third sector. Much of the work being done by NISP, Envirowise and the Market Transformation Programme (MTP) in particular is aimed at increasing re-use. Specific projects include:
Box 4.2: Action to support re-use and re-manufacture
The National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP), funded by the BREW programme, matches one operator's waste with another's raw material needs. In the first two years of its operation, in the region of 1.7 million tonnes of materials have been diverted from landfill with £70 million of cost savings
With Defra Research and Development funding, Loughborough University is investigating the feasibility of developing refillable packaging systems, including concept testing in the personal care market
Updated guidance encourages local authorities to pay credits for re-use to third parties where there are environmental, social and economic benefits
Defra funded the Furniture Reuse Network to set up an accreditation scheme for their members to access national re-use contracts