Adam D Read

“A weekly doorstep recycling collection, I had no idea we could!”: Overcoming the local barriers to participation

Abstract In 1990 the UK Government introduced a ‘challenging target of recycling 50% of household waste by the end of the century’. However, the success of local authority recycling programmes is reliant upon the participation of residents in the services provided. Traditional approaches (including leaflet drops and newspaper adverts) to communicating local authority services to the public have generally provided long-term educational benefits without offering the necessary short-term gains required to achieve the UK recycling target. In an attempt to increase low public awareness and participation the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea decided that effective promotion, through a door-to-door communications strategy, was the only means available to increase recycling tonnage and public participation in their doorstep recycling service. The Recycling Roadshow was launched to bring the recycling service and its message of ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ to every doorstep in the borough. This awareness campaign has increased average weekly recycling tonnage from 107 to 132 tonnes, and this success is attributed to greater participation resulting from the promotional activities of the Roadshow and more effective participation with residents recycling a greater range of their household materials. Clearly the Roadshow is a useful additional marketing tool, which conceptually marks a major rethink in the way that recycling is perceived, placing recycling at the heart of an integrated waste management strategy. The research suggests that this style of communication can form a central and cost-effective approach to raising public participation, and supportive data will be presented in this paper. The details of the programme, the Borough’s decisions prior to and during the implementation of this programme, its impact and long-term success will be analysed in more detail within this paper.

The successful demonstration of aerobic landfilling: The potential for a more sustainable solid waste management approach?

Abstract Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills worldwide are experiencing the consequences of conventional landfilling techniques, whereby anaerobic conditions are created within the landfilled waste. Under anaerobic conditions within a landfill site slow stabilization of the waste mass occurs, producing methane, (an explosive ‘green house’ gas) and leachate (which can pollute groundwater) over long periods of time. As a potential solution, it was demonstrated that the aerobic degradation of MSW within a landfill can significantly increase the rate of waste decomposition and settlement, decrease the methane production and leachate leaving the system, and potentially increase the operational life of the site. Readily integrated into the existing landfill infrastructure, this approach can safely and cost-effectively convert a MSW landfill from anaerobic to aerobic degradation processes, thereby effectively composting much of the organic portions (one of the potentially polluting elements in a conventional landfill site) of the waste. This paper summarizes the successful results of two separate aerobic landfill projects located in Georgia (USA) and discusses the potential, economic and environmental impacts to worldwide solid waste management practices.

Local Authority recycling and waste - awareness publicity/promotion

This paper explores some of the current waste reduction promotion/publicity material, and the education and information policies provided by Local Authorities, evaluating their effectiveness, and identifying any loopholes or omissions that exist in public awareness. The study was conducted in three local authorities in England: Luton Borough, Shepway District, and Sutton London Borough. The research involved contacting the Recycling Officers and 150 households in each of those authorities, and analysing all the available publicity regarding waste and its management. The results of these publicity campaigns are analysed in light of the survey findings and the authorities recycling practices.

UK waste minimisation clubs: a contribution to sustainable waste management

The UK waste strategy is based upon the central concept of the hierarchy of preferable options for the treatment and disposal of waste. Minimisation is placed at the top of the hierarchy and the Government seeks to encourage its uptake by industry and commerce as well as householders. It has been accepted that previous waste management policy and practice have not delivered the hoped for movement up the hierarchy. Within the UK, landfill still predominates as the option most commonly used to deal with waste. Movement towards more sustainable waste management practice has been identified as a priority, in the UK, by the present Labour Government. To that end, they have recently produced a series of consultation papers on sustainable issues that set out their vision and confirm waste minimisation as a key strategy for the future. In an attempt to stimulate the uptake of minimisation methodology by industry, waste minimisation clubs have been developed across the UK. There have been around 60 such clubs and they receive support and guidance from a range of organisations, including the Environment Agency and the ETBPP. These clubs have demonstrated that a significant reduction in waste arisings can occur when minimisation methodology is applied. Minimisation strategies often lead to improved resource efficiency and this is reflected in clear financial savings, e.g. the Leicester Waste Minimisation Initiative recorded mean savings, at the end of year one, of 0.26% of joint turnover. The median, however, better reflects the actual savings and it is apparent that even within a successful club there can be a wide range of performance by companies. Not all clubs have been successful and there has been little attention to the causes of failure in the UK. There are marked regional variations in club distribution and the proposed Regional Development Agencies, working with the Environment Agency, need to quickly establish strategies for minimisation uptake.

Making waste work: making UK national solid waste strategy work at the local scale

Waste management policy is fast becoming a major social and political issue around the globe. However, little work to date has been carried out on the ways in which local government are responding to the new waste management agenda being set by the EU and UK. This research is investigating the adoption of national Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) policy at the local level and the barriers that exist to its progress and the development of MSW technology and practice, using the data from a national survey of English waste management authorities (67% response rate). Local practices are clearly a response to a number of key parameters operating on a local authority, including: availability of landfill, relative costs of MSW management options, funding and staffing levels (political bias) and historical trends in the management of waste (existing markets and processing facilities). Currently 40% of authorities in England are experiencing a policy implementation gap, with 70% claiming to suffer from local implementation failure; with costs of options, staffing levels, local government cut-backs and the introduction of privatisation being cited as the key reasons for failure. Clearly a policy implementation gap is being experienced throughout the UK, with certain regions experiencing more acute implementation problems and practical difficulties than others, and the reasons and implications of this will form the core of the discussion. It appears that in the UK, administration at the local level is inadequate to manage the general policies proposed, identify and collect the relevant data and ensure the successful implementation of MSW management. This failure is in part due to the decentralisation of waste management issues to local authorities, without substantive budgetary additions (a common problem following privatisation), resulting in local activity remaining distinct and isolated from national strategies, causing significant implementation problems. Clearly, further work needs to be carried out into policy development and implementation processes with relation to solid waste management to ensure that where feasible movement of practices are encouraged up the hierarchy towards recovery and minimisation.

The UK Landfill Tax: an analysis of its contribution to sustainable waste management

Abstract The UK Government in October 1996 introduced a Landfill Tax to ensure that landfill waste disposal is properly priced so as to reflect its environmental cost and to help promote a more sustainable approach to waste management in which less waste is produced, reused or recycled. The UK Customs and Excise have recently reviewed the tax and the report indicates that there has been a modest reduction in waste going to landfill by industry but not households. It is submitted that for there to be a significant move towards a more sustainable approach to waste management to meet the targets set in the National Strategy the tax should be higher and the money raised by the tax should be invested to make alternatives to landfill cheaper and more readily available. It is also submitted that the Tax Credit Scheme, introduced as a means of enabling some of the tax to be invested to promote better waste management, is inadequately funded and the money is inappropriately focused. Following an examination of the projects and contributions made under the Scheme it is found that most of the contributions are not made towards projects which will fulfil the UK Governments perceived purposes. It is further submitted that there needs to be a more rational approach to waste management and legislation in Philadelphia forms a good case study of such an approach

Increasing participation in rational municipal waste management—a case study analysis in Jaslo City (Poland)

Abstract In the City of Jaslo (Poland), a separate household waste collection system was introduced in 1993. Although the system was extensively promoted, quality and quantity of recyclables remained low. The City Council looked at alternative ways of increasing residents’ participation in the Citys integrated waste management services. The UK approach to public education (‘the Recycling Roadshow’ programme) has been modified and adopted by the City. The programme is based on visiting as many households as possible by home advisors-individuals selected from the local secondary schools and carefully trained in MSW management and communication principles. Home advisors inform residents about the local waste recycling system, conduct a short survey and provide people with specific educational materials. To date, advisors have visited 14% of the Citys households including the tenement block estates. The survey results show that nearly 75% of respondents actively recycled at least one type of scrap material, whilst of those that did not, 50% claimed they would. The educational campaign produced not only an increase in recycled tonnage, but also in material types and recycling rates from both the tenement block estates and the private housing areas of the City. The impact varied for the different materials in the domestic waste stream, with the greatest improvement in paper recycling, and a significantly lower impact for glass. The City Council was so pleased with the campaign results that it has decided to extend the programme and the funding for another year. This paper discusses in detail the programme and the results achieved. Recommendation are made regarding those features of the campaign that need to be included in other local MSW management campaigns and programmes across Poland in order to maximise their effectiveness.

The UK landfill tax and the landfill tax credit scheme: operational weaknesses

The UK Landfill Tax and the related Landfill Tax Credit Scheme have now been in operation since October 1996. There have been a number of reviews to assess its operation and effectiveness that have led to some minor amendments. However, there continue to be concerns about operational weaknesses of the tax and the credit scheme. In particular, there is the risk that the tax may be evaded and there are fears that a lack of transparency and independence may undermine the fundamental principles of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. Following a recent report, the Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has set up an inquiry. This paper looks at some of the specific concerns that have been raised and the implications for waste management.

Business excellence through resource efficiency (betre): An evaluation of the UKs highest recruiting, facilitated self-help waste minimisation project

Abstract The business excellence through resource efficiency (betre) project aimed to increase awareness of the benefits of waste minimisation for SMEs in West Sussex, South East England. The programme was run by the West Sussex Sustainable Business Partnership, a collaboration of all West Sussex Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and EcoSys (a service provider). Betre provided a range of free business support and advice over an 18-month period including; workshops, newsletters, audits, grants and a technical Helpline. Information on environmental compliance and Best Practice for waste minimisation, recycling, energy and water efficiency was disseminated. All activities were linked with the UK governments Best Practice programmes. Although company recruitment was initially slow, betre was ultimately extremely successful at attracting companies to join; with 308 recruited. This is probably the most successful recruitment to a project, of this type, in the UK to date. Over half of the business members became actively involved and attended training events or had environmental audits. There were over 200 improvement actions identified by 64 of the participating companies. These resulted in estimated cost savings of at least £215 000 per annum. In addition, actions taken to prevent pollution and ensure compliance with environmental legislation have the potential to save businesses a further £204 000 in possible penalties. The environmental impact of the project has been significant, with reductions identified in waste (1437 tonnes), water (62 933 m 3 ) and energy (15 million kW h—equivalent to 668 tonnes CO 2 ). In addition to actions with directly measurable results, betre has stimulated long-term benefits by addressing pollution prevention and compliance, through the formulation of environmental policies and from the adoption of Environmental Management Systems. One of the key learning points is that it may have been better to devote less time to running training events and instead to have diverted this time to increased business support, mainly through audits. To capitalise on this success, a new project is being planned to disseminate Best Practice.

Open windrow composting of polymers: an investigation into the rate of degradation of polyethylene

Abstract The compostability of degradable polymers under open windrow composting conditions is explored within this paper. Areas for consideration were the use of, and impacts of, degradable polyethylene (PE) sacks on the composting process and the quality of the finished compost product. These factors were investigated through polymer weight loss over the composting process, the amount of polymer residue and chemical contaminants in the finished compost product, the windrow temperature profiles and a bioassay to establish plant growth and germination levels using the final compost product. This trial also included a comparative study of the weight loss under composting conditions of two different types of ‘degradable’ polymer sacks currently on the European market: PE and a starch based product. Statistical analysis of the windrow temperature profiles has led to the development of a model, which can help to predict the expected trends in the temperature profiles of open compost windrows where the organic waste is kerbside collected using a degradable PE sack.