Waste
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Introduction
Waste matters for the footprint both because wastes are resources lost to productive use, and because disposing of waste requires resources, especially energy and land.
National policy is based on the waste hierarchy of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle, recover’. The best thing to do with waste is not to produce it in the first place. The next best is to reuse objects as they are: for example refilling containers, or passing furniture or office equipment on to others who can use it. If that is not possible, material recycling (for example pulping used paper to make new paper) is the next best option. If even that is not possible, it is better to at least recover the energy content rather than just dispose of material to landfill.
Sustainable waste management is required by European targets. More from Less: a stakeholder perspective on Hampshire’s waste strategy, includes a helpful summary of targets from European directives.
Towards zero waste?
The great majority of what we throw away can be reclaimed for productive use in one way or another:
- Construction waste can be drastically reduced by careful specifying and site management. Construction and demolition wastes can be segregated and reused;
- Virtually all metals can be separated and recycled
- Timber can be reused or chipped for fuel
- Paper and cardboard can be shredded and used for packaging or insulation, pulped for recycling, incinerated for energy or composted
- Glass containers can be refilled or recycled; other glass can be recycled;
- Plastics can sometimes be recycled (though this is often not viable), pyrolysed (heated in the absence of air) to produce chemical feedstocks, or burned for energy;
- Organic material can be digested (releasing a ‘biogas’ which can be used as a fuel) or composted
- Many industrial byproducts can be reused by other industries.
As an illustration of what is possible, Copenhagen’s urban waste regulatory system reduced total waste landfilled from 48% in 1988 to 11% in 1998 by systematic regulation – driven application of a range of technologies.
Pathway To Zero Waste is a joint initiative between the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), the Environment Agency (EA) and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). It intends to reduce the amounts of construction, food and wood waste landfilled by reducing the amount of waste produced in the first place, and increasing the amount reused or recycled. It will concentrate on creating demand, market development and infrastructure, supported by legislation and policy, sharing best practice and data management. By 2011, the overall benefit to the south east regional economy is estimated at £370m [1]. The Community Wood Recycling Network [2] has members in Brighton, Chichester, Hastings and Bexhill, Mid Sussex and Oxford. Projects sell timber for reuse in building or furniture where possible, and chip the remainder for use in particle boards or as a fuel.
In Lewes, collaboration between Transition Town Lewes's Waste Group, E. Sussex County Council and local NGO "Furniture Now" has resulted in installation of a "rocket composter" to deal with food waste from local businesses and organisations.
Industrial ecology means linking different companies or industrial processes to use each other’s wastes as raw materials. Kalundborg in Denmark is an example.
In the 1980s Helsingor in Denmark started collecting the wet and dry fractions of domestic waste separately and getting both heat and power from both.
Case Studies
Copenhagen’s comprehensive urban waste management system
Copenhagen managed to reduce waste sent to landfill from 48% to 11% in just four years.
Project Integra
Project Integra tackles waste in the round.
Trade waste website
Trade waste website helps businesses turn waste into resource
Eurostar tap water
Eurostar tap water shows how cutting out an unnecessary activity – in this case bottled water – can achieve multiple footprint benefits
Kalundborg 'industrial symbiosis'
In Kalundborg businesses have evolved a rich network of waste and energy exchange.
Helsingor municipal waste scheme
Helsingor's comprehensive municipal waste scheme has been running since the 1980's.
Key Priorities
Need to add in some???? --Adminseeda 13:30, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
