More from Less
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Maximising Reuse,Recycling and Composting The scope for reducing waste growth was considered in the last chapter. This chapter discusses the benefits of extending product life, reuse and recycling and composting. The scope to improve over the period to 2020 is assessed together with what needs to happen to bring this change about. What are Extended Life, Reuse, Recycling and Composting? Extended life occurs when an item passes into shared or passed-on ownership. It is the optimal progression until something becomes unserviceable. It then becomes available for reuse or recycling of its component parts or materials. Reuse is when an item or its components are used in the same form more than once, but not necessarily for the same purpose. A further category is remanufacturing. This involves refurbishing items to ‘good as new’ standard. Recycling involves deconstructing items, recovering the raw materials, and making them new into new products. Composting is the controlled decomposition of uncontaminated organic wastes to produce a quality soil conditioner or additive.
Extended life and reuse delay the consumption of new resources. The problem is that these options can be impractical because of obsolescence or fashion changes. Reuse is often not viable because the cost of repairing faulty or contaminated items is too high. The availability of cheap imported goods and high labour and travel costs here work against reuse on a large scale.
Due to the technological advances of many new products, e.g. electrical items with better energy efficiency, extended life and reuse are better suited in environmental terms to some products and items than others. Extended life and reuse take place through a variety of means in the domestic and commercial sectors. The most visible extended life activities, where reuse takes place before items enter the waste stream, are charity shops and car boot sales. The Household Waste Recycling Centres are also an important opportunity for extended life and reuse. Currently a range of items and materials delivered as ‘waste’ are offered for sale through dedicated selling areas. There is scope to extend this activity to maximise extended life and reuse opportunities via the Household Waste Recycling Centre network It is very difficult to quantify the potential for extended life and reuse. It generally occurs before the materials and products enter the waste stream and become classified as waste. No data on these activities is readily available, however as an example, the Fair Share in Southampton project donated 260 tonnes of food to the homeless in 2004 which would otherwise have gone to landfill. The best way to encourage reuse is through awareness and influencing measures focussed on the process chain as proposed in the section on Increasing Resource Efficiency and Reducing Wastage. Remanufacturing can potentially overcome the problem
of obsolescence. Specification upgrades can be built into the
remanufacturing process. It has the potential to achieve a major
improvement in resource efficiency over new build. Remanufacturing also
has a high performance in terms of added value through the creation of
new jobs and skills. Currently remanufacturing is more practicable in
the business to business market; thriving sectors include aerospace,
power machines and tools. Remanufacturing is an important environmental and economic development opportunity that should be promoted as proposed in the section on Increasing Resource Efficiency and Reducing Wastage'.
Maximising Recycling and Composting Recycling has considerable benefits over the use of new raw materials. The benefits can occur at up to three points in the product life cycle:
Examples of the environmental benefits of recycling
some common materials are set out in the table below. These examples
illustrate the general picture. In any given situation the impacts of
collecting, transporting and reprocessing the materials also need to be
considered. The benefits of recycling can be negated unless these
aspects are undertaken in an efficient way. Illustrative Environmental Benefits of Recycling Compared to Use of New Materials
It is important to increase the volume of material recycled. Some materials (glass, steel and aluminium) can be recycled indefinitely. Others, such as paper, have a more limited life, although individual paper fibres can be recycled up to six or seven times. As well as ‘dry’ recyclables, organic materials can be composted into useful products. Project Integra’s ‘green’ waste composting scheme is a good example of this kind of activity. In addition to home composting, over 60,000 tonnes of garden waste are composted each year and the demand for the resulting soil conditioner outstrips supply. This shows that end markets for recycled products of this type can be secured where the product is a quality one. Other organic materials (e.g. food) could be treated in this way if they were collected separately and appropriate processing technologies provided. Given the environmental benefits, the main reason the UK is not already approaching optimal levels of recycling achievement is that landfill has been a cheaper and easier option. This is largely because the impacts of landfill have been borne by society as a whole and not by site operators or waste producers. This has distorted the true economics and as a result recycling is often not financially viable as an activity in its own right. The exceptions have been traditional activities such as scrap metal recycling and other high volume commercial/industrial situations. The economic balance of these external costs is however changing with landfill becoming increasingly scarce and new regulations restricting its use and increasing costs. It is likely to be some years before a level playing field is reached and in the meantime recycling will be dependent upon the following support mechanisms:
The main impacts of these mechanisms are to drive recycling in the household sector and a few commercial waste streams such as packaging, end of life vehicles and electrical and electronic equipment. Project Integra took the decision in the mid 1990s to invest in a major expansion of household waste recycling. This followed wide consultation which agreed that there would be a long term benefit to the community in not having to dispose of more domestic material than necessary. There is no requirement or overall system for businesses to recycle. They generally only become involved if having their waste recycled is cheaper than sending it for disposal. This is often the case for larger firms producing large volumes but most small businesses do not produce sufficient amounts to make recycling viable. However, escalation in the landfill tax is likely to influence this viability over time. Reaching the point at which recycling becomes viable for all can be hastened by ensuring that recycling is provided as efficiently as possible. One way of doing this is to ensure that synergies
between household and commercial recycling collections are maximised.
This will also reduce the pressures of waste management on the council
tax. It is also necessary to ensure collection schemes are designed and
operated as efficiently as possible in order to maximise tonnages. The Scope for Recycling and Composting From a materials management perspective, it is important to view recycling and composting in terms of the total material streams contained in household, and commercial and industrial wastes. For example, the challenge is to maximise glass recycling regardless of whether the material comes from a house, pub or factory. However, the optimal level of glass recycling may not be appropriate for, say, plastics recycling. Recycling opportunities in each of twelve overall material streams have therefore been examined:
The aim for each of these streams should be to achieve ‘Stretching Best Practice’ recycling performance. In assessing ‘stretching best practice’ in Hampshire, account has been taken of a range of factors. These include achievement in other areas, economics, expected participation and capture rates, availability of markets (including opportunities to develop markets), and infrastructure needs. Account was also taken of the scope to extract materials for recycling from mixed unavoidable waste prior to disposal. Overall ‘Stretching Best Practice’ should achieve an aggregated recycling and composting rate for all material streams of 60% by 2020. This represents a 75% increase in recycling over current figures. It will potentially yield a total material tonnage of 3.6 million tonnes per annum to be fed back into the production system by 2020 (see table below).
The following building blocks need to be put in place to achieve the ‘Stretching Best Practice’ recycling and composting aspiration. Storage and Processing Facilities There will be a need to provide for a range of new
storage and processing facilities to underpin recycling. About 20-26
major new recycling facilities supported by additional transfer and
materials recovery capacity are likely to be needed over the period to
2020. It is important that these facilities are provided as efficiently
and cost-effectively as possible to improve viability. For example,
where practicable, the on-site manufacture of aggregate from demolition
wastes should be encouraged. An indication of the types and nature of
new permanent facilities are set out in the table below. There will also
be a need for additional new smaller recycling facilities, like
Household Waste Recycling Centres. For example, of the existing 26 sites
in Hampshire, 20 have been earmarked for new development comprising of 4
service gap areas needing new sites, and 16 sites either needing
expansion or replacement. Indicative New Infrastructure Requirements to Achieve Stretching Best Practice in Recycling
Collection Systems Recycling will only work if recovered materials are fed back into the production system and made into new products which are purchased by consumers. Recovered materials must be of adequate and consistent quality to satisfy quality needs. Given the current state of technology, this often requires recyclable materials to be separated at source. Key issues that need to be addressed are:
Link with Process Chain Issues and Community Responsibility It is important that the community play their part in moving away from the ‘throw away’ society. There is a continuing need for education, awareness and information initiatives. The actions proposed in the section on Increasing Resource Efficiency and Reducing Wastage. to achieve behaviour change, maximise opportunities and develop markets are essential if achieving our reuse, recycling and composting aspirations is to be carried out cost-effectively for the public purse and for business.
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