Recycling up as recession hits home
December 11, 2010 at 5:15 pm
The recession has had numerous devastating effects for consumers living in the UK and indeed across the world. However, there are a few sectors and industries that have received unexpected boosts from the recession, and one of these just happens to be the recycling industry.
Official figures have revealed that, over the past ten years, the amount of household waste being recycled by those living in England has more than trebled and, despite the effects of the recession continuing to worsen for many people over the past year, there has been an increase in the level of household waste being either recycled, composted, or reused. In 2008/2009, 37.6% of household waste was recycled in some way, whilst in 2009/2010 39.7% was the improved figure for Brits to feel proud about.
With the recession reducing the effects of our traditional ‘throwaway’ society, consumers are now more interested in learning new ways to reuse or transform everyday items around the house, rather than chucking them in the bin. However, there is clearly room for improvement, with householders still throwing away more than 60% of their rubbish despite government incentives intended to reduce the pressure on landfill sites.
The winter months pose many problems for recycling collections, with councils struggling at times over recent weeks to make it through the snow and ice and stick to bin collection dates, and major recycling centres forced to shut as well, but as consumers with an environmental conscience, we need to ensure we’re still doing our bit to continue reducing the amount of waste thrown away per household over the next year.
Defra slams plans for weekly rubbish collection
December 6, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Plans by the Coalition Government to reintroduce weekly rubbish collections may add more than a million tons of recyclable waste to our landfills each year, according to figures from one of the government’s own departments. The UK recycling rate would be reduced, leading to doubts over EU targets being met.
The analysis of the figures released by the waste quango WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), was done by the environment business magazine, the ENDS report. The potential damage is not just to the environment but to our pockets in the form of increases to Council Tax as the extra collections would cost councils £530 million over the next four years.
Nearly half of the councils in England now have fortnightly non-recyclable rubbish collections. The evidence is that households are more likely to recycle with the less frequent collections as they are worried about bins overflowing. Since the election, coalition ministers including Caroline Spelman and Eric Pickles have been lobbying for a return to weekly collections. The local government minister, Bob Neill, has even encouraged councils to hold referenda on the matter.
Even though the government’s environment department, Defra, is in the middle of a review of the overall waste policy, the analysis by WRAP questions the effectiveness of the new policy. Their figures show that the amount of paper, plastic and cans currently recycled by homeowners could drop by up to 46kg per household each year. The figures are worse for garden and kitchen waste with the potential drop in waste recycled being up to 100kg per household. If these figures were extrapolated across the country it would be the equivalent of almost 5% of England’s household waste.
WRAP is also concerned that the increase in pro-recycling behaviour after the fortnightly collections were brought in could be gradually reversed, as the perception of the government’s policy changes by reverting to the ‘old’ weekly collections of non-recyclable waste. This potential drop in the country’s recycle rate would damage the EU target of 50% of household waste to be recycled by 2020.
UK retailer waste down by half
December 6, 2010 at 1:59 pm
There was some good news for the retail sector recently when it was revealed that retailers in the UK have reduced the amount of waste they are sending to landfill by half over the past five years.
The figures were released by the BRC (British Retail Consortium) in a report entitled ‘A Better Retailing Climate Progress Report 2010’. The main findings in the report were that supermarkets are now only sending 23% of their waste to landfill compared to 48% back in 2005.
This represents 1.2 million tonnes of packaging and food waste that have been saved over a five-year period.
The companies questioned for the report represent nearly half of UK retail in terms of market value, so the results are seen as very promising. In addition to the cut in waste, the report also revealed that the UK retail sector has managed to cut down on energy emissions and CO2 emissions from transport by an impressive 18%.
The director general of the BRC, Stephen Robertson, said that these are “remarkable achievements” which “show their commitment to tackling climate change has not wavered, despite the tough trading conditions”.
The overall aim for retailers is to reduce their packaging where possible, to use more materials that can be recycled and to inform their customers about which packaging is recyclable and which isn’t.
This is all down to the voluntary Courtauld agreement that was set up in 2005, where a number of targets were set for the retail industry in terms of packaging and recycling, some of which have already been reached.
Ebay to introduce reusable packaging
October 21, 2010 at 4:46 pm
In a move to boost their image Ebay are beginning to incorporate a box that can be sent back and forth between buyers and sellers known as the ‘Simple Green Shipping’ programme. This will help the site’s users to cut down significantly on the packaging they use. The product is a simple innovation that marks a major shift in the company’s green credentials. It also highlights the importance of recycling in customer perception of businesses.
Ebay will begin trialling the new scheme in October when they will release one hundred thousand boxes. The trial boxes will be entirely free to users who can simply request them via the website.
The Ebay website is essentially used as a virtual market stall and the company rarely intervenes in sales, unless there is a dispute between parties. The company had not come under any direct criticism for waste produced by their site and their decision to produce these boxes free of charge shows a business that either genuinely cares for the environmental issues or is wise enough to take the lead in green innovation.
The boxes have been designed so that they can be re-used continually and have been produced from recyclable materials. To encourage minimal damage to the environment not only will these mean less packaging used but the boxes themselves have been constructed from 100% FSC-certified and recycled material and printed with water-based inks. (The Forest Stewardship Council is a not-for-profit group promoting responsible use of the world’s forests.) The boxes will also be printed with tips on how to minimise waste and resources.
Ebay estimates that if each box is used at least five times this would be the equivalent of protecting nearly 4,000 trees, saving 2.4 million gallons of water and conserving enough energy to power 49 homes for a year.
The appearance of Ebay in 1995 was a landmark point in the emerging internet business world and they have strived to maintain this with their yearly innovation events where employees are invited to put forward new ideas. The ‘Simple Green Shipping’ programme was one of the five ideas picked this year.
A further point of interest in this project will be the space left on the boxes for users to inscribe messages and to track their box as it progresses around the country. This will foster a virtual community based on buyer-seller relationships and even give each box a very individual history.
The trial scheme will begin in the US in October and the company will expand this to Europe based on its initial success.
Carrier bag usage reduced
October 15, 2010 at 2:53 pm
UK supermarkets and consumers have reduced the use of carrier bags by 41% since records began in 2006, compared to a 35% reduction in 2009, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
The total number used in 2006 was 10.9 billion and this has since been reduced to 6.5 billion a year in 2009/10. These findings include bags-for-life, re-usable and single-use bags. It also means that the material used in carrier bags has decreased by 39,700 tonnes a year.
WRAP conducted a spot-check analysis of bag use throughout May this year. It found that 395 million less bags were used in May 2010 compared to the same month in 2006.
In 2008, the government, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and leading supermarkets made an agreement to apply a voluntary approach in order to try and cut the number of single bags given out to customers by 50% by spring 2009. The results of this target were announced by WRAP with a reduction of 48% achieved.
After the agreement to halve carrier bag use was made and all but met in 2009, monitoring has continued during 2010 without any formal targets being set. But the annual trend has shown that a reduction has continued by weight and numbers since 2006, according to WRAP.
The BRC added that the continued reduction of single-bag use for the fourth year in a row had been achieved at a time when customers were focusing on the economy instead of the environment.
Calls for return of bottle deposit schemes
October 8, 2010 at 2:36 pm
The CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), of which travel writer Bill Bryson is the president, has called for a reintroduction of the old-fashioned bottle deposit scheme to cut back on litter and increase recycling levels. It would involve consumers paying a deposit for glass and plastic bottles and cans to encourage them to take their containers back for recycling.
David Cameron has already said that the government will look into the proposed scheme to see how feasible it could be.
The scheme would involve customers paying a 15p deposit for containers smaller than 500ml, and 30p for larger containers. The deposit would then be returned to them when they take the empty bottle back to be recycled. The CPRE has predicted that, if successful, it could see a 90% return rate.
The idea forms part of the CPRE’s ‘Stop the Drop’ campaign, which is campaigning against littering and fly tipping. Bryson commented on the findings by asking “what sensible nation would not want to capture and recycle its precious and finite resources?”
The report suggests that the scheme would cost £84m to set up, but could save £160m a year for local authorities in their waste management costs.
As expected, drinks manufacturers are opposed to the idea, as they would be expected to foot some of the bill for the scheme. Bob Gordon, from the British Retail Consortium, dismissed the proposal as “rosy-eyed nostalgia” that would be an “expensive waste” to set up because “bottles and cans are not the issue”, highlighting rigid plastics as the key area for increasing recycling rates.
New Torbay recycling scheme up and running
October 1, 2010 at 2:29 pm
A new recycling scheme has just started in Torbay, Devon. The introduction of the scheme means that 60,000 households will now have to take time sorting out more of their rubbish in order to make it easier to recycle. Unsurprisingly, the scheme has proved to be controversial.
The aim of the new scheme, according to operators Tor2, is to get the recycling rate up to 50% of all waste by the year 2012. It claims that this will allow the council to save £14 million in landfill costs every year. In all, the scheme cost £2 million to set up and five years to come to fruition.
However, angry residents have been complaining that the scheme is too complicated, leading to thousands of calls to the council in the first few days alone. On top of the scheme proving unnecessarily confusing for many residents, there have been traffic problems caused by the new lorries which make the collections.
Residents now have a lot more work to do to throw out their weekly rubbish. They are now expected to separate their waste into three boxes: one for glass, foil and cardboard; another for cans, paper, plastic bottles and other materials; and a third outdoor bin for food waste. The rubbish will be picked up in a weekly collection.
The aim is to allow the council to reach the recycling targets that have been set by the European Union. The £14 million in savings will be made from not having to pay the landfill taxes and fines.
Battery recycling rates up
October 1, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Battery recycling rates seem to have been given a boost as a result of new EU legislation, according to recent figures from the Environment Agency.
The agency revealed that there has been a 7% rise in battery recycling rates over the last three months. In total, 16.5% of portable batteries were recycled in the second quarter of 2010, compared to just 9.15% in the first quarter.
In terms of volume, that equates to nearly 1,500 tonnes of batteries being sent for recycling between April and June of this year, and 2,320 tonnes being sent for recycling over the first half of the year.
It is likely that this sudden rise is linked to the new EU rules surrounding the recycling of batteries that came into force back in February 2010. The new laws made it a legal obligation for shops selling over 32kg of batteries a year to provide free battery collection points for batteries to be sent for recycling.
It is all good news for the government which has specific targets it has to reach over the course of the next few years. The target for this year is 10%, and it looks like this will be met as recycling rates are predicted to rise in the lead-up to Christmas. Indeed, the recycling rate for the first half of the year stands at 12.58%.
The next target is an 18% recycling rate for 2011, followed by the first legally binding rate of 25% the following year. Following that, a target of 45% has to be hit by 2016, so the government will hope that the rate continues to rise over the next few years.
Local authorities to grant referendums on services
September 24, 2010 at 1:35 pm
A new bill from the government is set to hand over more control to local authorities and to empower constituents. The bill, known as the Decentralisation and Localism Bill, is aimed at improving recycling schemes across England and Wales.
In a notable move towards David Cameron’s big society, if the bill is passed communities will be able to call for referendums on local services such as waste collections and tax issues. The focus is on getting local people involved in the running of their constituency and adapting services to suit each area.
It is hoped that a move towards more localised control will mean more efficient public services and encourage financial growth.
With recycling in mind, this month government minister Bob Neill gave examples of what the bill hopes to achieve. Mr Neill referred to the ‘Big Bin Vote’ carried out by Dartford council in 2007, highlighting how the vote had shown that the majority of people were opposed to the Labour government’s bi-weekly waste collections and wished to return to weekly collections.
A return to weekly collections has been a long-running Conservative policy, one that they argued for in opposition and are now hoping to see enacted.
Mr Neill hopes that other councils "will follow Dartford’s example in the difficult times ahead" and that they will "listen to local people about what services matter the most.”
The department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) stated that this has meant the end for pay-as-you-throw pilot waste schemes that were being introduced after the Climate Change Act of 2008. To replace these the localism bill hopes to introduce financially based incentive schemes for recycling instead.
The localism bill will even allow local people the opportunity to veto some policies such as excessive council tax increases. It has not been made clear, outside of recycling and waste schemes, how far these powers will be extended and for what services authorities may grant referendums. Nor has it been spelled out what will be required to call a referendum or whether councils will be obliged to act in response.
The bill was outlined in May this year during the Queen’s speech. Ministers hope to pass it through parliament in the coming months. Details of other services to be affected are expected to be released in the near future.
Environmentally friendly milk bottles
September 17, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Plastic milk bottles were introduced because of expenditure, ease of use and recyclability. Although plastic milk bottles are cheaper to make and recyclable, the process of recycling plastic is more time-consuming than recycling the original milk containers – glass bottles.
What’s more, not everyone, despite widespread encouragement, recycles. As plastic is an inorganic material that does not decompose, not recycling it creates a mass of landfill waste which is damaging to the environment. Indeed, the average person in Europe throws away 85 plastic bottles per year and only 7% of plastic that is disposed of is recycled properly.
In a response to an appeal for ‘greener’ packaging, supermarket Sainsbury’s are introducing eco-friendly milk bottles. The milk pouches are reported to use up less energy and “take up far less space”. In 2007 Waitrose quietly initiated the product but quickly withdrew it because of “poor sales”; Sainsbury’s, however, have been successful in their milk pouch enterprise claiming “sales have far exceeded [their] expectations”.
The reason Sainsbury’s have had an advantage over Waitrose is attributable to their marketing strategy; before the product was launched Sainbury’s staff had the opportunity to use the milk pouches at home, which enabled them to answer any questions customers had about the product and to assist them if they had any difficulty in using it. The product “costs 6p less than a standard 2-pint bottle of milk”, “contains 75% less plastic”, and, if successful, will “reduce packaging by a third by 2015.”
Although some people will be sceptical of this product, with such impressive predictions for the future, there is no reason why other supermarket chains should not follow suit.
