Targets for battery recycling now in reach
July 5, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Goals set concerning the number of batteries recycled each year now appear to be in reach. According to the Waste Resources Action Program (WRAP), targets set by the Battery Directive are likely to be attained by 2012 as was initially hoped. Nevertheless, a number of obstacles remain which may prevent these goals from being achieved in full.
So far, large numbers of batteries have been recycled in the United Kingdom. To date, WRAP has collected over 1.75 million batteries. Collection of used cells takes place in a number of ways. Deposit points are now available at the premises of most major retailers such as Argos, Tescos and Currys. Curbside collection facilities remain ever popular. However, a number of new schemes are currently being trialled. In May, WRAP together with the Royal Mail, launched a ‘collection by post’ initiative in two districts in Cumbria and Dumfries & Galloway. These services allow local residents to mail a variety of batteries, ranging from AAA to D, to recycling contractors. Specialized packaging is available to those who wish to take advantage of the scheme. This is essential for the safe transport of used and damaged batteries. If all goes to plan, this trial is expected to continue until 2008. The Waste Resources Action Program is confident that increasing the availability of collection facilities and the ease of disposal will encourage more people to recycle batteries.
However, despite this apparent success, much more needs to be done. Firstly, the collection and sorting of batteries can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Secondly, there is the ever-present problem of government red tape. Certain types of batteries are classified as ‘hazardous’ waste and must therefore be dealt with according to guidelines set out under national Hazardous Waste Regulations. Other types of batteries are classified as ‘dangerous.’ As a consequence, transportation and disposal of such cells is subject to the government’s Carriage and Dangerous Goods Regulations. This makes uniform collection schemes difficult. Paradoxically a number of obstacles to the recycling of batteries have arisen as a result of the new Waste Electrical and Electronic Directive (WEEE). In particular the WEEE directive is likely to affect the manner by which internal batteries in electronic goods are handled. Attracting investment to the sector is also essential. Despite growing awareness of the problems facing the environment, investment is limited, with the majority of recycling projects currently being funded by the government. Nevertheless, there are a number of signs to suggest that this situation may soon change. For example, G&P Batteries is presently developing a recycling plant for lithium ion and manganate batteries – the first of its kind in the UK.
Batteries contain many chemicals harmful to the environment. Some cells contain toxic heavy metals, whilst others release harmful chemicals such as mercury when left to disintegrate in landfills. It is therefore vital that they are recycled whenever possible. For further information on battery recycling or for tips on how you can do your bit to help the environment, click here.
New legislation allows for electrical recycling scheme
July 5, 2007 at 10:57 am
New environmental legislation set to come into effect this July is likely to significantly improve the ability of both retailers and consumers to recycle electrical appliances. The Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Regulations (WEEE) require producers and sellers of such appliances to make some contribution to the costs of recycling electrical goods lying at local tips. This obligation applies not only to established high-street companies but also to Internet sellers.
However, a recent survey by the high-street chain, Comet, has revealed that the vast majority of people are unaware of the services available when it comes the recycling of electrical goods. Comet’s report revealed that only one person in fifty was aware of the services on offer. Indeed, most people had never recycled an electrical appliance and a troubling number of those polled confessed to thinking that such practices were impossible. A significant proportion of those surveyed blamed their local authority for failing to provide them with sufficient information on the matter.
Recognising the need to increase awareness among consumers of the recycling services on offer, Comet has announced a number of measures to deal with the situation. Just about any electrical appliance can be recycled under the WEEE guidelines. As such, Comet is set to expand its collection and recycling facilities to cover bigger appliances including fridges, washing machines and dishwashers. Although over three million such appliances have been recycled since these services began, many more make their way to tips and landfills each year and consequently contribute to environmental degradation.
With our consumption of electronic items on the increase, the need to provide recycling facilities for such goods is of essence. Roughly 70% of heavy (toxic) metals found in landfills come from discarded electrical appliances. In some instances, such waste is transported to third world countries for disposal. However, this offers neither a viable nor equitable long term solution. Furthermore, in certain circumstances, recycling is the only real option. The direct disposal of certain goods such as computers and mobile phones is banned in developed countries as they contain components constructed from toxic metals. Other common household appliances such as televisions and VCRs can release toxic chemicals such as dioxins, PCBs and radioactive isotopes into the environment. Only recycling provides a safe means of disposal for such goods.
Comet’s recycling services are available to all. You need not have purchased your appliance from them in order to qualify. However, you will need to pay a fee of £20 per item to be recycled. Given the dangers associated with the direct disposal of electrical appliances and equipment, it is a small price to pay.
Cowbins inspire children to recycle
July 3, 2007 at 3:16 am
An initiative encouraging young people to recycle is causing a stir in Somerset this week. A “herd” of recycling bins, painted to look like Friesian cattle, has been installed in a field near Weston-super-Mare ready, to be used by schools in September. While the bins have boosted recycling rates elsewhere, there are concerns that the roadside spectacle is slowing down traffic on the M5.
The makers of the bins, waste company Taylor, claim that they deliver a 61% increase in recycling. The eye-catching “Cowbin”, and smaller “Calfbin” for primary schools, provide an exciting way to educate children and adults about recycling issues. The “Feed the Cows” recycling project in the London Borough of Lewisham won Best Information and Communications Campaign at last year’s National Recycling Awards.
The Waste Strategy for England 2007 from the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) promised more recycling bins in public places and stressed the need to promote waste reduction and recycling in schools.
Taylor has agreed that the Somerset herd should be removed following complaints that the bins are distracting drivers and causing delays. This won’t be the end of the bovine recycling champions, though. Chorely Borough Council in Lancashire has just been awarded a grant of nearly £39,000 for the bins to be used in a communal recycling scheme. According to Taylor, there are plenty more cowbins desperately wanting to move to new pastures to graze on recyclable rubbish in schools and public spaces across the UK.
Can China be excused its emissions seeing as the UK send all its recycling there?
July 3, 2007 at 3:05 am
Should China be excused 2 new power stations a week because it recycles most of the UK’s rubbish?
China is the workhouse of the world. Since the dawn of the millennium it has become one of the top-five exporters of merchandise, the second highest oil consumer (after the US) and the world’s biggest coal consumer. China’s importance in the world’s economy is huge, but for all its growth, there comes a price. In 2006 China’s CO2 emissions rose 9%, compared to 1.4% in the US (Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency). In July 2007, as reported in BBC News a study by a leading climate change official for the UK Home Office, John Ashton, concluded that on average China builds two new power stations per week and these are almost solely coal-burning plants.
The Chinese economy needs to uphold its energy production levels to support its rapidly increasing economy. However, alongside their increasing levels of carbon emmissions, China appears to be helping the rest of the world in what many would consider an environmentally-friendly task – recycling.
Over 35% of all waste-paper and plastics collected in the UK is shipped en masse 8000 miles to Hong Kong, where it is fought over by the hundreds of recycling factories. Many of the factories are not being run in accordance to the safety standards accepted in the UK; plastics are burnt and their waste often leaked into nearby rivers, huge and unfiltered stacks of smoke sit under the clouds and the workforce are often migrant labourers, earning next to nothing, working in appalling conditions and being exposed to high-levels of toxic poisoning.
Unbelievably there has been no official report into the precise environmental costs of this recycling-trade. Although China professes to be regulating the waste that is exported to it, their recent industrial revolution makes any new business proposition almost impossible to resist. They have defended claims that they are doing more harm than good by highlighting that the end product of these factories is often storage containers that would normally have had to come from chopping down trees all over the world.
Although the UK has vastly improved its methods and incentives for recycling, whilst foreign companies such as those in China are offering cheaper and quicker deals for local authorities and supermarket chains in the UK, shipping the waste abroad will be be a hard offer to resist. Although the government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs claims that in the next three years they will “encourage £40m worth of private investment into waste projects” a British plastics recycler, Edward Clack, was reported in The Guardian Online on September 20, 2004 as saying “Everyone has lost supplies to China. The local market is being starved of materials. Hundreds of brokers are buying up the plastic and shipping it out. It’s cheaper to send a container to China than to Scotland.”
Asda stocks environmentally friendly CDs
July 2, 2007 at 2:58 am
The supermarket Asda recently announced that it will become the UK’s first supermarket to exclusively stock a wide and diverse range of environmentally friendly CDs, which come in fully compostable packaging. Asda has always been a supermarket with a green conscience and has often done research into the relationship between the consumer world and the planet. The supermarket even has its own website, called ASDA’s Big Recycle Website which primarily targets children of a young age in order to educate them about how they can help to save the environment through recycling. This latest news concerning CDs follows Asda’s recent research into CD recycling, which found that up to 25% of all plastic CD covers are thrown away within 12 months of purchase.
The new CD packaging will be made from 100% recycled and recyclable paper-foam (which can be recycled along with newspapers and magazines) and will be stocked in all of Asda’s 336 stores in the very near future. Furthermore, no booklets will be sold with the CDs (the production of CD booklets uses a lot of paper which is often wasted as many people will never so much as glance at their contents) but will be available from the Universal Music website. Asda will call this new range the ‘Ecopac’ range and it will be manufactured in conjunction with Universal Music. There will be CDs available for all tastes and all age groups, from Marvin Gaye to Marilyn Manson.
Many music fans, both young and old, are eager to help make the country more sustainable and they are likely to enthusiastically accept Asda’s scheme, especially as it coincides with other events in the music world such as the Glastonbury festival and Live Earth. Live Earth actually marks the start of a multi-year mass persuasion campaign led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, which aims to instigate real action from all levels of society to help save the planet. Both this event and Glastonbury present a need to entertain but also to educate the public about issues concerning the environment and saving the planet through recycling. Asda’s scheme combines these two priorities and is likely to appeal to many people.
There is further evidence to suggest that Asda’s scheme will be a success. Asda’s parent company, Wal-Mart introduced the same scheme approximately 6 months ago. More than 2 million copies of the environmentally friendly CDs have been sold to date, with this figure only set to rise in the coming months. Both schemes from Wal-Mart and Asda interestingly coincide with a new awareness concerning the need to recycle old and unwanted CDs. Although the supermarkets have provided us with a good scheme to cut down on wasteful packaging, the problem remains as to how to recycle the actual CD itself. However, rather than throwing CDs in the bin, try these quick tips:
A greener way to buy your milk
July 2, 2007 at 2:49 am
Supermarket chain Waitrose is hoping to appeal to environmentally conscious shoppers with a new reusable milk jug and “eco pak” refill pouches. Both are made of recyclable material and use 75% less plastic than typical ‘polybottle’ milk packaging.
Whitland-based Calon Wen supply the pouches and the organic milk inside them. The company comprises 20 organic family farms across Wales and was the first dairy in the UK to achieve the Soil Association Ethical Trade Symbol.
This method of buying and storing milk is not entirely new. In Canada, around 40% of milk is sold in lightweight pouches. The concept has also been launched in Australia and New Zealand, but without widespread success. Waitrose say that if the eco paks were to entirely replace polybottles in the UK, nearly 100,000 tonnes of plastic would be saved every year.
The recyclable milk jug, costing £1.99, and eco packs, at 91p, will be available in 17 London branches of Waitrose, 3 branches in Wales and in their Bath store, with plans to roll the product out across the UK.
Quality not quantity is key to sustainable
June 14, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Recycling is on the increase in the UK. The Government target – to recycle or compost at least 33% of household waste by 2015 – seems achievable, and more of us are participating in domestic recycling than ever before. Yet, although the volume of household rubbish which we separate from mainstream waste for recycling is up, there is growing concern that quality is down.
What does this mean? Well, many local authorities have encouraged residents to recycle by making it easy – supplying one box or bag, into which a mixture of recyclables can be placed. This method, known as co-mingled or single-stream collection, can lead to contamination of the supply chain. Concern is such that the campaign group PaperChain has withdrawn support from the imminent 2007 Recycle Now Week. PaperChain fears that Recycle Now has lost sight of the evolving issues facing UK recycling, and claims that “the message on maintaining quality throughout the collection process has never been actively or effectively promoted to the public.”
Single stream collections are easier for householders, but segregating recyclables reduces the risk of contamination, especially for paper and cardboard. PaperChain says that “although material recovery facilities (MRFs) are able to segregate the material streams to a reasonable quality when they are running well, such facilities invariably end up generating recovered materials that are not up to the standards required for reprocessing without further sorting and cleaning.”
Up to 25% of material collected by householders for recycling ends up in landfill sites because of high levels of contamination. This is the claim made by Cylch, the Wales Community recycling Network. There is no blueprint for recycling in the UK, it is up to individual local authorities to determine collection methods, and a lack of investment in modern recycling facilities hampers progress. Mal Williams, CEO of Cylch, believes hundreds of millions of pounds of resources are being lost each year.
PaperChain additionally argues that campaign groups should now be encouraging the public sector to focus on quality and sustainability, not simply on generating greater volumes of recyclables. The organisation is greatly concerned about the long term sustainability of recycling in the UK if nothing is done to address these quality control issues. Recycle Now, meanwhile, has responded by saying: “It is not practical for Recycle Now Week to deliver detailed material quality messages to householders, as collection systems vary between local authorities.” So, who is at fault?
According to Williams, sending recyclables to landfill because of contamination is not a new problem. He blames a lack of investment in better facilities, and Whitehall, for the situation. “The Government can be blamed for not taking a strong leadership role,” he said. DEFRA’s Waste Strategy for England 2007 emphasises that “every local authority will have a role to play in increasing diversion of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfill in order to meet the requirements of the EC Landfill Directive.” It seems local authorities are under pressure to recycle and to divert waste from landfill. Clearly, as PaperChain are keen to stress, workable and sustainable recycling schemes need to be at the heart of their policy if these two targets are to be met.
Composting with worms
June 5, 2007 at 10:23 am
Worm composting or ‘vermicomposting’, to give it its proper name, is the ideal solution to smelly bins which are increasingly being emptied by councils only once a fortnight. It is a process whereby red earthworms consume organic waste and produce good quality compost for use in the garden. It can be done indoors or outdoors, year round, is odour-free and does not take up a lot of room.
Sites such as Wiggly Wigglers sell everything you need to set up your system, including the worms and also provide useful information on the process. The easiest to use is the Can-O-Worms and the Worm Factory as they are “tray systems” which allow for easy access to the compost and are small enough to house easily. If you have the room, the larger Waste Juggler has a handle and wheels and holds up to 90 litres of compost.
If you do not want the financial outlay of around £60 for a commercial system, you can make your own from an old wooden drawer, a plastic basin or metal container, so long as it is not more than 12 to 18 inches deep. You will need a series of small holes in the bottom for air and drainage and a lid to keep it dark for the worms and to keep unwanted visitors away if it is outdoors. For the best possible ventilation, put it up on bricks and put a tray underneath to catch any liquid. Worms thrive best in temperatures between 55 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, so avoid extremes. The worms need a six inch layer of bedding and the best material is shredded newspaper, computer paper or cardboard. It should be moistened but not soaking wet.
The worms will process fruit and vegetable peelings, tea leaves, coffee grounds, stale bread, pet hair and vacuum cleaner dust, crushed egg shells and general food scraps. It is best to avoid meat and bones, fish, dairy products, rice, pasta and onions. The food should be added in two inch layers leaving a section clear for the worms to move to if they want. It is also possible to bury the food under the bedding and this has the advantage of keeping it out of the way of flies. Wait until the worms have finished processing one lot of food before adding more.
After three to six months the compost will be ready to be harvested. You can move all the contents of the worm box over to one side, and place fresh bedding and food in the empty space. After all the worms have moved to their new home the compost can be harvested from the other side. Another option is to put all the contents of the worm box on to a plastic sheet in the sun and arrange it into several piles. The worms will automatically crawl away from the light into the centre of the piles and you can harvest the compost from the outside of each pile. The compost from the wormery is more concentrated than normal compost, so a little go a long way.
The argument for real nappies
June 4, 2007 at 3:22 am
For many years, no-one has thought twice about using disposable nappies for their babies. Struggling to fold a terry square into some weird and wonderful shape and coping with outsized safety pins was just too much like hard work. Sadly no-one gave a thought to where all these disposable nappies ended up and the damage they were causing to the environment. Now of course, we are more enlightened and with landfill space fast running out we are having to change the way we think about nappies. Eight million disposables a day are thrown away and by the time your child is two and a half you will have used around 6,500 nappies. It is not known how long it will take for the plastic to decompose but it could be hundreds of years.
The alternative is to use real nappies, made from soft breathable fabric (often cotton and sometimes organic) which come in different styles, sizes and even colours and are fastened with poppers or Velcro. Not only do real nappies mean savings in landfill but they also reduce the amount of energy used to produce disposables and all their packaging in the first place. If you don’t want the hassle of washing and drying nappies, there are plenty of special laundry services which will take your dirty nappies away and deliver a fresh supply.
It is certainly in the interests of local authorities to encourage parents to use real nappies; Nottinghamshire Council estimates the cost of sending disposables to landfill sites to be over a million pounds a year. For this reason many councils provide a free sample pack of real nappies or a free trial of a laundry service and some even offer cash incentives. According to the Women’s Environmental Network parents could save up to five hundred pounds by using real nappies and even more if the nappies are reused for subsequent children.
To reduce the environmental impact even more, it is suggested that rather than soaking the nappies in chemicals they should be stored dry in a bucket with a lid until they are washed, you should use a 60 degree wash for the nappies (and 40 degrees for the waterproof wraps) rather than using a maximum temperature wash, eco-friendly washing powder should be used and they should be dried outdoors or on an airer rather than in the tumble drier.
The Big Recycle transforms into Recycle Now Week
June 2, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Recycle Now Week, a major annual campaign encouraging recycling across the UK, runs from 2nd – 8th June 2007. Formally “The Big Recycle”, the initiative is organised and funded by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) in partnership with materials recycling organisations British Glass, Corus, Novelis and Recoup.
This year’s theme is transformation, with householders being urged to transform behaviour by making a long-term commitment to recycling and transform households, schools, offices and streets into recycling hot-spots. The public is also being encouraged to discover how waste can be transformed into a range of useful and beautiful objects, from fashion to furniture.
TV star Denise Van Outen is backing the 2007 campaign, putting the glamour into green-living by spreading the message that recycling has never been more in vogue. She teamed up with ethical fashion designer Gary Harvey to launch the week by modelling a series of recycled outfits. The collection includes a “technicolour dream dress” made from recycled packaging and a ball gown made from second-hand jeans.
Road-shows, workshops and competitions will take place up and down the country to mark the event. Go to the Recycle Now website to find out what’s on near you.
