Local campaigning on waste. Contents 1.Introduction I.Who works on waste, and why? II.Waste in the UK – national FoEcus 2.Sustainable waste management.
Post on 05-Jan-2016
213 Views
Preview:
Transcript
Local campaigning on waste
Contents
1. Introduction
I. Who works on waste, and why?
II. Waste in the UK – national FoEcus
2. Sustainable waste management
3. A new government, and new context
4. What we can do?
I. Split and discuss: Positives and Negatives?
Consumption is increasing...
Global resource use is decoupled from GDP growth – but is still going up [1]
Why is resource use important?
• The foundation of our economy
• Resource extraction (and disposal) leads to major environmental and social impacts
• Huge inequality in resource consumption
• Only one earth, ... Climate change, biodiversity, rights,resource wars...
• Yet the UK buries or burns over £650 million recyclable material every year [2]?
The waste hierarchy...
• The top of the hierarchy is good:
I) Prevention
II) Reuse
III) Recycling, Composting/AD
• Bottom is bad:
I) Incineration
II) Landfill (unless ...)
The UK Context
1) The good stuff:
• Prevention– We need to create plans and set targets– Recycling (visibility) boosts prevention
• Reuse– Landfill diversion, cheap furniture, electricals etc, jobs
• Recycling– Kerbside sorting; civic amenity/bring sites; wide range– Use high quality MBT to maximise recycling
• Anaerobic Digestion food waste etc– 100% renewable energy, plus soil conditioner– In High quality MBT, or composting, before landfilling
2) The not so good...
• All the above are good for climate, resource efficiency, biodiversity, rights, jobs, ...
• Incineration– Is bad for climate – 1/3 less carbon efficient than modern gas– Very expensive, with long contracts binding councils– Inflexible, and competes with reuse, recycling, AD– 1/10 jobs of recycling
• Landfill– Also bad for climate, unless after high quality MBT– Less bad for climate than incineration if treated– Phasing out anyway
05/25/10
3) The context
• New government:– Pro AD and less enthusiastic (?) about incineration– Claims to be the greenest ever– Claims wants to match European recycling rates– Anti targets, anti duties on councils, anti legislation, – Pro “voluntary measures”, including “rewards” e.g. Recyclebank– Austerity: good (cuts to bad PFI schemes) or bad (other
investment)?
• Waste review– Announced June, initial ‘results’ spring ‘11– But already said ‘minded’ not to ban landfilling recyclables
05/25/10
References
[1] “Overconsumption? Our use of the world’s natural resources”, Friends of the Earth Europe/Sustainable Europe Research Institute, September 2009:http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2009/Overconsumption_Sep09.pdf
[2] “Gone to waste: the valuable resources that European countries bury and burn”, Friends of the Earth, October 2009:http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/gone_to_waste.pdf
05/25/10
4) What can we do ....?
over to you!
Group discussions,Followed by report back
top related