Waste strategy is passed without vital question being asked

IT HAS been said that one of the greatest tricks the devil ever pulled was persuading the world that he did not exist.

Well, one of the greatest tricks the Public Services Department ever pulled was getting its new waste plan through the States without anyone asking the question: what is this going to mean to the man on the street?

There is so much to be liked about the aspirations in the new strategy.

For those that have argued for so many years that everything has to be done to drive down the amount of waste produced before it is finally disposed of, the decision made last week is a vindication.

As are the multiple U-turns the department has gone through in the many years it has been working on waste since inheriting the issue from Environment.

Where once there appeared an overriding desire to wait and see, now it is all about action.

All of a sudden we can press on with kerbside and food waste collections without having the final treatment in place which has always in the past been pivotal to anything else happening.

Imagine where the island would be now if its sudden progressive stance had been reflected at the start?

But if you thought all was rosy in the garden, with a united front to drive things forward and complete public buy-in, you would be mistaken.

Members of Public Services' waste disposal authority were still on Thursday disputing who said what when, who was it that spotted or more importantly acted on the errors in the early cost calculations that had put on-island incineration as the department's preferred option as late as September?

The discussions around the board table at that point must have been a sight – you can almost imagine members passing around this hot potato arguing who would be left to present it to the States.

Would Public Services minister Bernard Flouquet want to go to the Assembly for a third time backing incineration, especially in an election year?

That was averted when the figures were run again with a 'Guernsey-factor' added in, thankfully for export supporters that guesstimated number tipped the balance to that route.

Export came out on top financially and environmentally – although it is hard to spot anywhere in the report that any consideration was given to the environmental impact of container ships ploughing the oceans with our waste in one direction and perhaps returning empty in the other.

If members were serious when they said it might not be Jersey, but could be a plant in the UK or even Europe that takes our waste, it is hard to see how the transport by sea part has ever been scored into the environmental rankings.

To some this type of thing drives to the crux of discomfort with the waste strategy.

Too many untested assumptions and uncertainties – the speed at which the figures were calculated are acknowledged in the caveats attached in the appendix items to the report.

Those will of course all be drilled down into now, for the export option at least.

Last week Public Services deputy minister Scott Ogier was disappointed that this newspaper's coverage of the decision raised the prospect of penalties for those that did not comply with waste minimisation and prevention.

He insisted that kerbside collection would be voluntary.

He argues that there is no mention of penalties.

But even a cursory glance of the report and strategy finds passages that say legislative measures are needed to achieve 70% recycling – read into that what you will.

Again this is another area of discomfort in Public Services' report – is it really having the frank and honest conversation with islanders that needs to be had to explain what 70% recycling will mean to them?

It is perhaps all too convenient to argue at the moment it will all be done with a nice carrot – either that, or there is a large dose of wishful thinking taking root.

The department has probably taken a conscious decision not to waken the electorate with talk of punitive measures at this stage.

All this is why a job on the Public Services Department will be a hot political potato next term.

It will have to have that conversation, as well as one about issues like what will be happening to the number of doorstep collections.

Too much detail for a strategy, perhaps, but it is when strategy bites on daily life that people get interested.

Public Services did much to get islanders on board with its vision through an unprecedented level of consultation.

It now has to take that experience forward when faced with the calls about rising waste bills, inconvenience, and when the carrot no longer will help crack the targets.