CIWM President Vicki Hughes has warned that small and medium-sized businesses in the waste and resources sector risk being overwhelmed by the pace and complexity of regulatory change.
Speaking on the Beyond Waste podcast, Hughes said incoming reforms and policy changes, including digital waste tracking, broker and dealer changes and Simpler Recycling, are creating significant pressure for smaller operators.
Hughes said larger businesses are often better equipped to manage change because they have more time, money and people. For smaller businesses, she said, the challenge is often balancing day-to-day operations with a rapidly changing regulatory landscape.
“There is a lot changing,” Hughes said. “Change for big business is easier. They’ve got resources, both time, money and people.”
“For a small business, legislation changes like digital waste tracking, brokers and dealer changes, Simpler Recycling, all these other things that are coming in, are really difficult to manage.”
Hughes said proportionate regulation was ‘key’ as the sector faces multiple reforms at the same time. She stressed that raising standards remains essential, but warned that compliant operators can face growing scrutiny while illegal activity continues to create wider market pressures.
She said: “There’s a lot of time on with regulators regulating sites that are trying really hard to be compliant and really hard to follow the process, but it’s constantly changing.”
“So I think there has to be proportionate regulation, because I think that is key at the moment with all the change that’s going on.”
Hughes said waste crime is not only a problem because of the environmental damage it causes, but because of its impact on legitimate businesses operating within the rules.
Using the waste wood sector as an example, she said legal businesses can face pressure from poor market conditions, rising costs and increased regulation, while illegal operators distort the market by accepting material outside compliant systems.
She warned that some operators may begin to ask ‘why am I bothering?’ if it becomes too difficult to remain in the sector.
“I worry that there is a whole layer of industry that is going to stop wanting to be involved because it’s too difficult and it’s too complicated,” Hughes said.
“Whilst I’m all for raising standards, one of my big things is let’s make sure we do this stuff properly. I do think we’re in danger of losing some really good people in our sector because it’s too hard and we’re making it too hard.”
Hughes said the issue is not whether policy change is needed, but whether reforms are designed and delivered in a way that works for businesses on the ground.
She said policymakers need to listen more closely to the sector’s experience of implementation, particularly from smaller businesses.
“We really need to start thinking about not just creating policies for the sake of having a policy, which might be the right thing to do, but we should be listening to our sector,” Hughes said.
“We’re the ones that day to day have to wake up, go and sit on a weighbridge and work out how the hell we make that piece of paper say what it’s meant to say when it ends up being something that comes from policy decisions made miles and miles away.”
“I don’t think we do that very well. For me, I would say we really need to start listening to the sector’s voice.”
Hughes said CIWM, CEI and other trade associations are ‘perfectly placed’ to be involved in those conversations, but warned against policy being shaped only around the experience of larger waste management companies.
“The UK and Ireland as a whole is not just big business,” Hughes said. “We are run on lots and lots of small businesses and I do worry that they are being completely overwhelmed.”
Also speaking on the podcast, CIWM Early Careers President Emma Mulligan said policy can play an important role in setting standards, but must be deliverable for businesses.
Mulligan said collaboration between government and the sector is essential, adding that organisations in the sector need to be talking to the bodies drafting policies, and vice versa.
“It’s all good having a policy in place, but it needs to be deliverable as well,” Mulligan said.
The comments come as the sector continues to navigate a period of significant policy and regulatory change, with businesses also awaiting greater clarity on the circular economy growth plan.
Mulligan said some organisations may be waiting for the plan before finalising their own growth plans or future strategies.
Hughes said policy uncertainty can have a knock-on effect on investment, but added that resource efficiency, circular economy delivery and skills will remain major opportunities for the sector regardless of government timing.
“People don’t invest if they don’t know where the investment is going to go,” Hughes said.
“Whatever the timing the government does or doesn’t do, we’re still going to need resource efficiency. We’re still going to be talking about circular economy. We’re still going to need skills for this sector.”
You can listen to the full Beyond Waste Podcast episode with Vicki Hughes and Emma Mulligan on all podcast platforms, or watch on Youtube here.