Landfill full to bursting
Filed Under Country Curtain | Posted on January 12, 2008
As the UK runs out of landfill space at an alarming rate, its never been more urgent to seriously address attitudes to recycling and waste management.
After numerous delays which have seen the UK slip behind much of the rest of Europe in terms of its approach to waste management, a raft of new laws are finally coming onto the statute books, and should see the nation beginning to seriously address the vast amount of waste we produce as a nation.
This year finally saw the belated implementation of the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which puts responsibility onto manufacturers and retailers for the safe disposal of electrical goods at the end of their useful life. The directive actually entered European law in 2003, although it would be unfair to be too harshly critical of the UKs slow uptake as, out of the 25 member states, only Cyprus met the deadline to enshrine it in national law by August 2004. None the less, by one year after the deadline every member state bar the UK and Malta had at least transcribed framework regulations, so we shouldnt really be patting ourselves on the back either.
Elsewhere, next September sees the implementation of the Battery Directive, which legislates on the safe disposal and recycling of potentially harmful used batteries, while the UKs Waste Implementation Programme, the response to meeting the targets of the EU Landfill Directive, sets out a number of staggered targets and increased landfill taxes which should see the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill reduced to 35 per cent of 1995 levels by 2020.
Not a moment too soon, would seem the obvious response.
According to the latest figures from the Northwest Regional Assembly (NWRA), for example, the Northwest region has only seven years of landfill space remaining at current levels, and this is a pattern that is largely followed across the country.
Steve Barwick, director of strategy at the NWRA, comments: People in the Northwest currently use resources of three planets. Thats what wed need to survive if everyone in the world used the same amount of resources as we do here. We obviously need to get a grasp of the situation, with only seven years of landfill space remaining at current rates. Part of the problem weve had in the past is that waste simply isnt a sexy subject, it doesnt always inspire the headlines we need to make it stick at the front of peoples minds, plus theres a long-established sense of %26lsquo;out of sight, out of mind, which has been fostered by years of simply dumping in landfill and ignoring it. The current regional average of 25 per cent of household waste either recycled or composted is simply not good enough, and we need to work hard to improve this situation.
The NWRA is set to play a key role in achieving this aim. Its regional spatial strategy, which is currently awaiting government response, includes waste issues. The strategy is expected to demand a partial review of the regional waste strategy, which will set the framework within which local authorities and other organisations will have to work to improve on their recycling and dumping
records.
However, says Barwick, its not just local authorities that need to be making the effort. Individuals, producers and retailers need to take responsibility too, although authorities need to make facilities and collections available to allow this to happen:
The lack of collections drives me mad, he says. Plastic cartons, for example, take up a ridiculous amount of space in landfill, but hardly any authorities take plastic collections. There are some technical issues with plastic, and some is more recyclable than others, so this can affect the economic viability of plastic recycling collections, but well be looking into this in the strategy it may be that by approaching the issue on city-regional or sub-regional scale and encouraging communication between authorities we can bring in the economies of scale required to validate the process.
Barwick also cites the example of the Irish approach to cutting down the number of plastic bags going to landfill as an example of good practice. Irish supermarkets have begun to charge a 15 cent tax for plastic bags, which, he says has given people pause for thought. Indeed in the three months following the plastaxs implementation, the number of bags given out by Irish supermarkets had dropped by 90 per cent as people increasingly recycled. The revenue on those bags that were given out instore, meanwhile, is expected to bring in an annual tax revenue of ?10,000,000, which will be earmarked for environmental projects.
Says Barwick: Supermarkets too often cater to peoples innate laziness its much easier to just buy four pre-packed tomatoes rather than seeking them out loose, and much easier to have your shopping handed over in a shiny new plastic bag at the till than to take your own, but things are starting to change. The EU directive is certainly making a big difference, while greater public awareness is also turning things round. People are now beginning to connect waste and climate change, which is really changing attitudes and giving a big boost to attempts to change peoples habits. Theres a lot of work to be done, but we seem to finally getting on track, with commitment from central and local government, retailers and manufacturers and individual consumers themselves.
With managing our waste likely to prove one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century, its not come a moment too soon.
POWERED UP
Emerge, Manchesters social enterprise recycling company, has established its SME battery recycling scheme, in advance of the Battery Directive (September 2008). Available to any business within the M60 loop, the initiative will be a positive step for Manchester in its aim to become the UKs greenest city.
In 2005, batteries were classified as hazardous waste under the Hazardous Waste Regulations, due to the heavy metals they contain. Elements such as zinc carbon, zinc chloride, cadmium, mercury and lithium amongst others can leak into the ground, polluting soil and water. Both mercury and cadmium can bio-accumulate in fish and damage eco-systems, making them unfit for human consumption.
The European Union Battery Directive was passed in 2006, meaning the UK has been given targets of recycling 25 per cent of general-purpose batteries by 2012, and 45 per cent by 2016. Currently the UK is recycling just 2 per cent of its disposable batteries, and 9 per cent of rechargeable batteries. By contrast, Belgium already recycles 59 per cent of its general-purpose batteries.
The company will supply businesses with battery boxes, which it then collects when full, and issues the hazardous waste note required under the new law. Back at the emerge depot, the batteries are collected by a specialist battery recycling company from Birmingham. There, the batteries are sorted and then recycled. Waste batteries and battery-powered appliances produce a number of different components that can be reused.
The company is also keen to encourage businesses and individuals to switch to rechargeable batteries. The average battery takes 50 times more energy to manufacture than it actually gives out, so clearly even when recycled, disposable batteries are a significant drain on resources.
BAG IT UP
One of the biggest causes of concern for those trying to increase the UKs level of recycling and reduce rubbish going to landfill is plastic, and of the worst offenders among the many plastic products which litter our streets, beauty spots and landfill sites, is the humble plastic carrier bag.
Typical plastic products can take years to degrade, and around 90 per cent of the plastics ever made are believed to still exist somewhere in the world unfortunately all too often in landfill or around the necks or in the stomachs of the UKs wildlife a recent survey in Orkney found that 96 per cent of dead Fulmars found on the island had 28 pieces of plastic waste in their stomachs.
Both local and national government bodies have toyed with ideas including an outright ban, or an Irish-style tax on carrier bags. But a Hertfordshire-based company has come up with a seemingly simple solution in the shape of oxo-bio bags. With no change to the existing manufacturing process, bag manufacturers can add a simple additive at the beginning of the manufacturing process which results in a carrier bag which is totally biodegradable in 18 months, degrading away to little more than water, and giving off no methane in the process.
Says Michael Stephen, chair of Symphony Environmental and a former member of the Environment Select Committee: Because its a simple matter of adding the d2w additive at the start of the process, then using the exact same machinery and workforce to produce the product, theres very little price differential compared with normal plastic bags, and the carbon footprint is the same its exactly the same process.
The as-yet relatively unknown method has a number of apparent advantages over the existing starch-based hydro-bio plastics, which require extensive land use to farm the crops they are made from, and give off methane when they degrade. Indeed, according to Stephen, the total hydrocarbons emitted during the whole manufacture, use and degredation process of the bio-plastic bags is considerably greater than those emitted to make standard bags, which are made from Naptha, an already existing by-product of the oil-refining process, which, however green we may wish to be, isnt going away just yet! Add to this the fact that bags which are collected can still be recycled, while those that find themselves in rubbish will simply degrade away, and oxo-bio begins to look a very intriguing proposition.
Its early days for the technology yet, although the Co-Op has already brought oxo-bio bags into widespread usage, and the technology is also transferable to numerous other plastic products, including the oftberated excess food packaging our supermarkets insist on providing, and a number of other supermarkets and organisations including the World Wildlife Fund and the Soil Association have trialled the bags too. One thing is clear if were going to, as a world, successfully fight the combined threats of global warming, carbon emissions and an increasingly dirty planet, well need a lot more thinking of this type!
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