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.

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

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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

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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

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4) What can we do ....?

over to you!

Group discussions,Followed by report back