Summary of Workshop 3
Materials recycling: initiating change
In her introduction to the
third Material Resources Strategy (MRS) Stakeholder meeting at Princes
Hall, Aldershot in March, Alison Millward was to-the-point: "What
we are going to go away with today is the big picture, and what we need
to do to change it. And if we are to change things in Hampshire then it
is largely the people in this room who are going to make it
happen." The people in the room – more than 150 of them – had
certainly brought with them the enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment for
the task in hand.
Alison, who is lead independent facilitator of the MRS
project, and head of Alison Millward Associates, continued: "We are
now at a crossroads, and we need a step change in behaviour and mindset
to achieve our aims. The next stage is to develop a draft core strategy
by end of 2004."
MRS addresses the need to redefine waste in Hampshire as
a resource and feed it back into the system. Its aim is to produce
strategies which will maximise re-use, recycling and recovery of value
from material resource. Two previous stakeholder meetings had defined
the vision, principles and strategic objectives of MRS, and the aim of
the third meeting was to progress matters by looking at how to use
materials more efficiently and minimise waste at all stages, and how to
maximise recovery and re-use. These issues would be debated by delegates
representing a wide range of stakeholder groups from – amongst others
– local authorities, community organisations, commerce and industry,
with over 30 experts representing the various different waste streams.
Two presentations set the
scene. David Smith of Foster Yeoman showed why recycling makes
commercial sense, with his firm’s innovative alternative to hot mix
asphalt for road repairs, which utilises more than 90% recycled
materials. Foamix is a blend of ingredients, including recovered spoil
from roadworks, bound together by a ‘foam’ of bitumen and water,
that is cost-effective, energy-saving, environmentally-friendly and
convenient to use. It has already proved itself in a pilot scheme by
Hampshire County Council, which has set itself the ambitious target that
no excavated material from road works will ever go to waste again. The
authority hopes to both demonstrate best practice and drive costs down
by influencing the way in which the construction industry uses
materials.
Next, Doreen Federigo of Waste Watch presented some
startling facts and figures to shake up anyone who might still feel smug
and safe about the planet’s resources. She encouraged delegates to
"Think globally – act locally". Just 15% of the world’s
population accounts for 50% of its consumption, and if the affluent West
wants to continue this lifestyle we will need to find another two and a
half planets to support it! A look at two of the consumer goods
currently swarming into homes across the developed world – PCs and
mobile phones – revealed the hidden costs in terms of natural
resources like water and fuel involved in their manufacture. And the
fact that we treat these items as disposable makes the figures even more
shaming. The throw-away attitude is getting worse – indeed, some
companies even use it as a selling point, like the sandwich manufacturer
at Waterloo Station which proudly trumpets the fact that it throws away
any food not sold in three hours.
The message was that education will play a large part in
changing attitudes. Currently there is a gap between people’s
conception of what we need to do and what is actually needed. In the
words of Albert Einstein: "The problems we have today cannot be
solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them."
Getting down to business
An open floor discussion followed, which encouraged
delegates to walk around the room to talk to various experts about how
sustainable material resource use is currently being realised. From
sustainable design and production, through retailing, procurement,
composting and biowaste, to paper and card, plastics, glass, textiles,
metals and construction waste, electrical goods, end-of-life vehicles,
and chemical and hazardous materials – every possible topic had been
covered.
There are several encouraging initiatives, like Foamix,
already underway – many of them well established, profitable, and
already replacing less sustainable products and practices. In
agriculture, for example, Southern Water has pioneered Bestway
fertiliser products, made from treated sewage sludge. With the essential
nutrients and organic matter from farmyard manure on traditional mixed
livestock and arable farms now a rarity in southern England, the
Government has repeatedly stated that recycling biosolids to
agricultural land is the best practicable environmental option. Not only
are Bestway products environmentally sound, they also yield increased
output, reduced costs and an overall increase in gross margin.
Meanwhile the Government’s Envirowise initiative
provides practical advice on how to manufacture printed circuit boards
at lower cost, and design products for legislative compliance,
especially for the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
Directive. Through its FastTrack on-site reviews, the scheme
helps manufacturers turn waste into profit by improving resource
efficiency and reducing associated costs. The service is available free
to companies with fewer than 250 employees.
And did you know that the aluminium drink can is the
world’s most recycled drinks container? Alcan aluminium can recycling
operates Europe’s only dedicated aluminium beverage can recycling
plant in Warrington, Cheshire, and is the largest recycler of its kind
in the world. Because aluminium cans can be recycled back into new cans
over and over again, this is called ‘closed loop’ recycling –
which, says Alcan, is "recycling at its most rewarding".
Looking at the resource streams
Group work came next, with delegates splitting into
pre-selected groups to find out more about a particular material process
chain and make suggestions for furthering the ideals of the MRS in
Hampshire.
One of these groups was concerned with the retail
sector. As the interface between the producer and the consumer,
retailers face various challenges. There is currently no established
recycling infrastructure for the commercial sector – despite the fact
that this accounts for 80% of all waste. Some larger superstores or
retail parks are equipped with customer recycling areas, although these
are usually run by the local authority. Smaller retailers often do not
have the space to store waste for recycling, and the cost of negotiating
individual contracts for its removal is prohibitive.
The comment around the table was centred on the need to
ensure that local authorities provide a framework for the collection of
local waste. It was also suggested that the Government could influence
retailers’ behaviour, for example, by increasing landfill tax. It was
agreed that Hampshire could pilot a scheme for combined household and
commercial waste collection, and that more information is needed about
the nature of commercial waste. Perhaps the need for retailers to
separately sort waste prior to collection would be a barrier to
participation? Do we have the capacity to deal with the waste that
arises if we improve collection facilities? And do we have the markets
for the resulting materials or products?
Further group work followed after lunch, with
discussions focusing on individual resource streams. One of these is
textiles. It is estimated that one million tonnes of textiles are
discarded each year in the UK despite the fact that as much as 95% is
reusable or recyclable. Up to now, collection of textiles from the
household has been confined to charities, community groups and private
companies, with no authorities in Hampshire offering kerbside
collections. Instead, householders are required to take textiles to
charity shops, or use the ‘bring banks’ located in public areas and
operated by charities like the Salvation Army, which has over 1,800
banks nationwide.
Representatives from Scope, The Salvation Army Trading
Company and TRAID discussed with delegates the issues surrounding re-use
or recycling of textiles. Indeed agreeing on definitions was one of the
hottest topics: are textiles a waste stream? The charities are most
interested in good quality, wearable clothes which can be re-used
(re-sold to make money for the charities themselves and to provide
inexpensive clothing for those who require it, either at home or
abroad). If they are to be successful in influencing the public to stop
seeing textiles as ‘rubbish’ they must also accept other textiles
such as old towels and linens, which cannot be re-used and, at present,
can only be profitably recycled by selling overseas for reprocessing.
While the ultimate aim was to encourage people to
separate clothing from other textiles, it was thought that at present
this may cause confusion that would discourage people from recycling
textiles at all. Again, education would be key to achieving a better
understanding of the impact of our ‘wear it for a season’ society.
This must begin at school level, and indeed the Salvation Army and TRAID
have both worked with fashion students to encourage them to design
clothes from recycled textiles.
The plastics story is quite a different one, with mature
facilities for recycling, and companies such as Delleve plastics working
only with recovered plastics. But supply is one of the biggest problems
– currently only 5.5% of bottles recovered are actually recycled, and
major manufacturers in this marketplace are demanding more waste
plastics in order to meet their capacity. Bring schemes and kerbside
recycling collections are proving successful in terms of household
plastics recycling, although again little data is available from the
commercial sector
There was some confusion around the table about plastics
that could be recycled (thermoplastics) and those that couldn’t (thermosets).
But even the latter can be used in energy recovery through incineration.
The development of the infrastructure for plastics recycling in
Hampshire, of a range of end markets for recovered plastics, and public
sector procurement of recycled plastic products were seen as priorities.
Looking ahead
At the beginning of the meeting, delegates had been
asked to volunteer to join specialist groups which would undertake to
develop specific issues arising from this session in time for the next
stakeholder meeting.
Among the issues to be developed by the groups were the
need to link household and commercial waste; to engage with SMEs to
recycle waste paper and develop collection facilities; to collate more
information on textiles, particularly in the commercial sector; to
research the viability of a plastics reprocessing facility in Hampshire
and develop markets for the resulting material, and to increase volumes
of glass collected for recycling, again integrating household and
commercial streams.
This meeting had been energetic, positive and
productive, with much useful dialogue between experts and those with the
ability to influence change. In addition to examining in greater detail
the outcomes of the meeting and the work of the specialist groups, the
next Stakeholder meeting would look at what to do with the unavoidable
waste and the location of new facilities.
MRS workshop 4 will be taking place on 14 July 2004, at
The Southampton Guildhall.
Further details of this next workshop are available here.
Top of page
|
