A Masters graduate from Manchester has set out policy recommendations for the Manx government and local authorities on waste management.

Keir Powell-Lewis, who has a Masters in environmental governance and has been a regular visitor to the Isle of Man since 2012, has presented proposals for policy solutions when it comes to the island’s current household waste management challenges.

This follows on from his research in 2019, in which he held interviews with key waste management and recycling stakeholders.

The University of Manchester graduate also conducted a local survey to find out how residents deal and think about single-use plastic packaging in their daily lives.

He found that 84% of the 86 survey respondents cared about what happens to their packaging after use and that just 7% of respondents felt that the government does enough to reduce single use plastic usage.

One of his recommendations is that there needs to be clearer communication between the government, households, businesses and local authorities to help create a common understanding of waste management options.

Mr Powell-Lewis suggested a cross-island approach led by the government to support local authorities that are responsible for waste collection could help to normalise kerbside recycling through an opt-out initiative.

He said that few people participate in regular kerbside collection due to a lack of infrastructure and system confusion, adding that kerbside recycling behaviour is driven more by ’keeping up with the neighbours’ than by strong environmental values.

The third recommendation to the Manx government is to ’harness the mandate’.

He said: ’Households understand their own role in waste management, but also demand stronger political leadership.

’Effective waste management stems from policy that acknowledges the important - and different - roles households, businesses, and government play.

’Isle of Man Government should harness its mandate for using legislative tools as part of their current policy development to build resilient and participatory infrastructure in-keeping with its sustainable objectives and Unesco Biosphere credentials.’

He added that local authorities should also harness their mandate on this matter as residents expect more leadership from them.

Mr Powell-Lewis recommended that more cooperative work is needed between local authorities on waste management as it ’improves consistency and efficiency’.

Waste in the Isle of Man leaves households through three primary routes, that being: kerbside collections in all 22 local authority areas, of which only two offer recycling collections; four civic amenity sites accepting recyclable and non-recyclable material and bring banks that accept only recyclable materials located in public areas, such as car parks.