Zero waste test sites named across England

The Environment Minister has announced plans for size ‘Zero Waste Places.

Six places ‘Zero Waste Places’ in England have been named, ranging from a residential street to an entire region of England.

The Zero Waste Places will aim to go as far as possible in reducing the environmental impact of waste, whether it be at home, in the workplace or in the community. 

Environment Minister, Jane Kennedy said: 'Across England, we are seeing communities come together with innovative ideas and a shared determination to tackle waste locally. These six Zero Waste Places will test what can be done to make it easier for people and businesses to change the way they view and deal with waste.'

The six places chosen to implement zero waste plans are:

• The London Borough of Brent, which will develop 20 Green Zones across the borough by September 2009. This will involve establishing Green Teams of residents and developing a GIS-based map of the borough showing green ‘threads’ growing through the borough to track the progress of the initiative.
• Shenley Church End in Milton Keynes will see the area of nearly 1500 homes, two schools and a number of high street businesses aim to cut waste and litter right across the area.
• Kings Lynn in Norfolk will achieve zero waste as far as possible within the historic area of the Tuesday Market, which is home to businesses and homes, as well being a tourist hotspot and the focus of many civic events.
• The London Borough of Lewisham will run an Eco Street initiative, where around 100 properties will be targeted through a range of measures including specialist advice and support to cut waste.
• Peterborough will run a Zero Waste City Centre initiative, which will focus on Cathedral Square and the three streets leading from it (Bridge Street, Cowgate and Long Causeway), including the Queensgate Shopping Centre, encompassing more than 200 retailers and offices, including the Town Hall and council offices.
• The West Midlands will create a Zero Waste Region, focusing on businesses and organisation that produce a large quantity of waste, identifying region-wide waste infrastructure needs, improving co-operation and cutting business waste right across the region.

The Zero Waste Places initiative aims to identify and monitor six places to become exemplars of good environmental practice on all waste. The participating places will fulfill a pathfinder role in identifying the barriers and illustrating solutions to enable others to adopt the most effective approach to zero waste, providing a year-end report in 2009.