30 September 2020

IOM3 submits response to Environment Agency river basin planning: challenges and choices consultation

The consultation explores the challenges our waters face and the choices and changes needed to tackle them.

The information gathered through this consultation will help the Environment Agency update the current river basin management plans and consider how current approaches will need to change in response to a changing climate and growing population.

Drawing on the expertise of its Polymer Society, Mining Technology Division and Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy Division, IOM3 has submitted a response to Challenge 5 and Challenge 6, exploring what can be done to address plastic pollution and pollution from abandoned mines respectively.

There is potential to address plastic pollution at several stages in the chain from manufacturing, through use, to disposal. Government policies and initiatives, such as those set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy, should underpin and inform collaborative action to address plastic pollution, in which the Environment Agency will play a key role. In the consultation response, IOM3 highlights the key actions the Environment Agency can and should take to reduce plastic pollution, including collaborative anti-littering measures, tackling illegal waste crime and better enforcement of the waste hierarchy.

In response to Challenge 6, exploring what can be done to address pollution from abandoned mines, the response highlights a range of options and recommendations from preventing water entering mines, to the research, development and funding required to lower treatment costs across the whole life cycle.

The full consultation and further information can be viewed here https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/environment-and-business/challenges-and-choices/