Waste Strategy 2005-08

Waste Strategy 2005-08

Foreword

A healthy and sustainable environment is the overarching framework of all the government's environmental initiatives. We will therefore not accept unnecessary impacts on the environment from our waste. This is the clear message in Waste Strategy 2005-08 – the Government's waste policy for the next four years.

The way ahead in waste management is to reduce the loss of resources and the environmental impact from waste.

It is vital that waste be managed in the way that represents the best value – both in terms of the environment and economics. As a completely new initiative, this Strategy provides the first calculations for a number of waste indicators that show how much waste is impacting on the environment. If we combine these waste indicators with economic analyses, we will obtain a better and more thorough basis for evaluating whether waste is being managed correctly.

Waste Strategy 2005-08 sets clear goals for what we hope to achieve in waste management over the next four years. One goal is to make the environmental improvements resulting from the money invested visible. And we will work towards making the waste management sector as efficient as possible. Another great challenge is to decouple growth in the volume of waste from economic growth in society.

We are currently already recycling large volumes of waste. And that is a good thing. But there remain areas where we could do better. In particular, waste from industry and the service sector will be closely examined – as there is still more waste that could be constructively recycled in these areas.

This Strategy will equip Denmark to make a positive contribution to future waste management initiatives in the EU.

I see Waste Strategy 2005-08 as marking the beginning of a Danish waste policy that focuses on the environment, efficiency and economics, to the benefit of sustainable development. Let me encourage everyone to participate actively in implementing the Government's policy. We all have a responsibility to create the best conditions for a healthy and sustainable environment. And the way to achieve this is by having a constructive waste policy, as this Strategy describes.

Hans Christian Schmidt
Minister for the Environment