Dr. Julian Parfitt Joins WRAP Team
• Adequate data provision imperative to good decision-making
• Work to include assessment of progress towards WRAP's current targets
His role within WRAP will focus, amongst other things, on:
· Quantifying WRAP's progress towards the targets set out in the Business Plan.
· Providing adequate data assessment of new market areas where further recovery would be possible.
· Quantifying material flows through the economy and identifying market share of recycled materials.
In recent years, Dr Parfitt has been the data analyst for DEFRA's annual municipal waste management survey as well as advising the Environment Agency on household waste compositional studies. At a local level, Dr Parfitt has developed innovative methods for the assessment of local authority recycling scheme performance under a research programme based at the University of East Anglia.
Ray Georgeson, WRAP's Director of Policy and Communications, said: "I am delighted that Dr. Parfitt is joining WRAP. His expertise in waste statistics and analysis will be invaluable in the assessment and the further development of WRAP's programmes."
Dr Parfitt said, "I am looking forward to the challenge of working for WRAP on their programmes. A lack of accurate data on waste and recycling in the UK has always been a barrier to rational decision-making on waste management. We have gone some way in recent years towards rectifying this situation, but much remains to be done."
ENDS
Editor's notes:
1.
WRAP, a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, is supported by contributions from DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs); DTI; the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales, totalling £40 million over three years.
2.
WRAP's mission is to promote sustainable waste management by:
o Working to create stable and efficient markets for recycled materials
and products
o Removing barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.
3
Waste Strategy 2000 set out the Government's approach to reaching new targets of reduced landfill and announced the establishment of WRAP as a new body dedicated to overcome market barriers promoting re-use and recycling.
4
More than 150 stakeholders representing manufacturers, retailers, local government, community groups as well as the waste management industry contributed to a major consultation process leading up to the Business Plan published in June 2001. Copies available at: www.wrap.org.uk
5
WRAP has laid down targets across seven programmes comprising four material streams (Paper, Glass, Plastics and Wood) and three generic areas (Procurement, Financial Mechanisms and Standards and Specifications). The Quality Sourcing Initiative sits in the Procurement programme.
6
Julian Parfitt has been active in the area of waste management research for over 20 years. His first involvement was as a market research executive designing hazardous waste producer surveys for the Greater London Council, alongside the more usual research on fast-moving consumer goods. He left the market research industry in 1987, to study for a PhD at the University of East Anglia. The subject of his PhD was the quantification of hazardous wastes in the Greater London area, which involved a period of secondment to the London Waste Regulation Authority. Here he designed and analysed a number of surveys into the problems of small quantity hazardous waste generators, including a 10% survey of London's vehicle repair workshops.
In 1990, having completed his PhD, he worked for the Centre for Environmental Risk at the University of East Anglia on the statistics of man-made and natural disasters. From 1991 to 1996 he was a lecturer in environmental management at UEA and programme director - waste management, at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment. Here he worked on research into the application of extended lifecycle assessment to recycling and waste management. He also carried out a critical evaluation of the National Household Waste Analysis Programme for the Department of the Environment. From 1996 he has held various research posts in academia, including at the Open University, as well as working as an environmental consultant.
Dr. Parfitt's main research and consultancy interests have focused on improvements to the quality of waste statistics across a number of different sectors: commercial and industrial, healthcare and municipal. In 1996 he headed a national review of the quality of municipal waste statistics which led to the upward revision of the UK's municipal waste arisings (by 28%) and the setting up of a new municipal waste management survey for England and Wales. As well as being the main data analyst for DEFRA's municipal waste management survey, Dr Parfitt has developed monitoring and assessment tools for local authority municipal recycling and waste collection systems.
Julian Parfitt Principal Analyst
WRAP, The Old Academy, 21 Horse Fair, Banbury, Oxon
OX16 0AH
Tel: 01295 819929
Fax: 01295 819911
julian.parfitt@wrap.org.uk
