Wasting time

A SENSE of healthy scepticism surrounds the latest attempts to solve Guernsey's waste problem.

Will Public Services' bid to involve the whole population in arriving at a solution be a glorious example of consensus in action, or a sure-fire way of raising unrealistic expectations. And what will be the consequences?

Will the solution fairly reflect all this talking - indeed, should it?

Where does the boundary lie between elected representatives being put in a position to make and be responsible for tough decisions and making sure the solution is acceptable?

But the clearest message that emerged last week from the first workshop aimed at finding a solution was sheer frustration that it was all taking so long.

There are some lessons in openness and transparency here, too.

In all, some 70 organisations were invited to take part over two nights at St Sampson's High, with workshops addressing the big-picture policy, not the nitty-gritty of how to do it - that comes later.

All the information gathered will be put into a report and released - something some departments fear.

This is the bottom-up approach so often craved for and is an eye-opener for anyone who thought all States policies were created in a dark room on the back of a fag packet.

Now we know that applies to only some of them.

Lindsay de Sausmarez was at the Wednesday workshop to represent Sustainable Guernsey.

'We need to make this process worthwhile. I know a lot of people are sceptical, not least about the tendency of States procedures to scupper good intentions. But this is a really pressing problem and we need to find workable solutions,' she said.

'We need to get the community involved and we need to keep them engaged in the process - that's the only way this will work.'

She said the workshops were a really good start in that direction.

But she feared the island ending up with a compromise solution.

'We asked for the opportunity to have our say and we have to embrace that opportunity now it's been given to us.'

Deputy Public Services minister Scott Ogier is leading the waste issue after the department's last response was overturned at the last minute amid mounting public pressure.

He was one of about 10 deputies taking part in the workshop.

Deputy Ogier rebuffed a suggestion that it should have been kept non-political.

'We wanted representatives from every department in order that they could all have an input into the consultation,' he said.

And he defended the process against any criticism that it was raising unfair expectations among the public.

'We could have rolled up our sleeves in February, sat down and come up with a revised waste strategy based on what we thought people would want.

'But that would run the risk of the previous two attempts - deciding something in isolation of the people of Guernsey and unveiling everything at the last minute.

'We needed to take time - move away from that approach, engage with the people of Guernsey, interested groups and business, and make sure we came up with a solution that's acceptable to the majority.'

The States could not afford to get it wrong again, he warned.

The most prominent moments of Deputy Ogier's political career have been focused on the waste issue - from leading the requete in 2004 which finished off the Lurgi incinerator to taking a seat on the board that proposed one from Suez, to then being handed the reins to steer another attempt.

'It takes a long time to change a system with a lot of inherent momentum and I hope we are witnessing the death throes of the old ways of treating waste as something to be thrown away.'

It should instead be seen as a resource, he said.

But time is ticking and at the moment PSD plans a Green Paper in June - yet another part of the consultation jigsaw.

Is there value in reassessing overriding principles already well accepted and endorsed by the States and the community?

Take the waste hierarchy, the idea that we should avoid as much waste as possible first before looking at reuse, then recycling, then recovery and finally disposal.

Did this need rubber-stamping?

Those organising the whole consultation document will say that you never know where a good idea will come from.

But many now feel there needs to be urgent chipping away at the amount of waste going to Mont Cuet - and the workshops might have done better to look at that.

Among them is the man responsible for the 50% recycling target, former Environment minister David De Lisle.

'I was pleased to see the focus of the workshop was on waste minimisation and endorsing the principles of the waste hierarchy,' he said.

'The timescale was an issue from my point of view. A report by next June in terms of a Green Paper gives little time to progress this term before the next election. There is an unease about standing still until that time.'

An information pack handed to participants listed what Guernsey is currently doing and Deputy De Lisle said these measures were put in place by his former department: 'The charge for single-use carrier bags, subsidised home composting bins, voucher schemes for real nappies and Fontaine Vinery etc.

'In fact, we have gone backwards by withdrawing a very successful trial kerbside recycling scheme in Town and St Peter's and starting with a clean sheet of paper, when many elements of the waste strategy we already have in place as resolutions of the States approved in 2007 in the waste plan - measures such as an in-vessel composter for dealing with food waste, kerbside recycling, updating the bring-bank system and the 50% recycling target.'

He has questioned why the top pf the waste hierarchy, prevention, cannot be tackled immediately.

'We don't have to stop and wait while this consultation and reporting chugs on to the next election. Even the updating of the bring-bank system has been put on hold.'

So has Public Services won over its detractors?

Well, it left a sheet at the exit to find out what people thought of the evening.

The general feeling was the evening had been valuable, productive and interesting.

But when asked whether they felt more or less reassured about it being a valuable way to work, the majority indicated a neutral response.

Its true test may be about to come when everyone begins to drill down into the detail.

It is easy to endorse big-picture principles but a lot more difficult when it comes to the crunch of consumption taxes, fines and giving over complete control to private enterprises.

A SENSE of healthy scepticism surrounds the latest attempts to solve Guernsey's waste problem.Will Public Services' bid to involve the whole population in arriving at a solution be a glorious example of consensus in action, or a sure-fire way of raising unrealistic expectations. And what will be the consequences?

Will the solution fairly reflect all this talking - indeed, should it?

Where does the boundary lie between elected representatives being put in a position to make and be responsible for tough decisions and making sure the solution is acceptable?

But the clearest message that emerged last week from the first workshop aimed at finding a solution was sheer frustration that it was all taking so long.

There are some lessons in openness and transparency here, too. In all, some 70 organisations were invited to take part over two nights at St Sampson's High, with workshops addressing the big-picture policy, not the nitty-gritty of how to do it - that comes later.

All the information gathered will be put into a report and released - something some departments fear.

This is the bottom-up approach so often craved for and is an eye-opener for anyone who thought all States policies were created on the back of a fag packet.