Quo Vadis? Science and Regulation as Uneasy Bedfellows

ABSTRACT

In the waste management field and the wider environmental sciences arena, science and regulation have become increasingly uneasy bedfellows. Scientific research should create the bedrock that underpins environmental legislation, shaping its construction, interpretation and implementation. It is the currency of investment in the future of waste management. Society must be assured that scientific knowledge has been subject to rigorous peer review to ensure its credibility and high standard. The architects of our waste management legislation must be similarly rigorous and fully transparent in their application of that knowledge and its use in the shaping of the legislative framework.

The interface of science and policy presents both opportunities and challenges. Imposing penalties under regulations structured without satisfying a reasonable burden of scientific proof in their construction is questionably as wrong as seeking prosecution without evidence of fact. Science has its own professional standards and a universal Code of Practice for scientific conduct to which all investigators must adhere. Regulators must do likewise, to ensure that the need for an effective scientific foundation to legislation is properly met at all times, managed effectively and applied objectively and with uniformity.