I've been writing lots re waste recently - see back on the blog - but wanted to explore this question some more...Copyrighted photo reprinted here with permission of Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan. See more photos.
Well it is my view that local authorities could be doing considerably more in terms of reducing waste - some years ago I asked if they would contact supermarkets locally - as far as I know they didn't moves are afoot now to look at such strategies but I am not sure they will be making the bold statements they could - supermarkets are also making tentative moves - the Coop for example have launched 'naked cucumbers' - what will we do without that plastic sleeve?!!!
It is ridiculous how much packaging is wasted - and let us not forget people pay for that packaging to be produced then pay in their Council tax for collection and disposal of that waste and the environment also pays - it also seems unfair that those who don't purshase products with excess packaging are penalised by having to pay for it anyway in their Council Tax....
Other measures could also be taken - Furniture recycling, charity shops, car boots and real nappies have all had mentions before on this blog - indeed I initiated meetings to try and get the Stroud Furniture Recycling reopened last year.
See the excellent video on waste: http://www.storyofstuff.comHowever the main problem does lie with Government - not only for the absurd situation where a District Council is responsible for collection and a County for disposal but also for their total lack of vision - it is no wonder we are considered the 'dirty man' of Europe. This is one view sent by a Green recently in response to a question about Councils reducing our waste...
1. Waste minimisation is really too high up the hierarchy for the actions of the collection and disposal authorities to really have an impact on them. The statutory duty to implement waste minimisation does not lie with these authorities - it's a central government task, with some input from the EA [ie the Producer Packaging Regs etc] in relation to the larger packaging producers. The reason for this is that, short of agreements with the major retailers [and we are seeing these appear now - WRAP are doing a lot of work here], all that is available are legislative controls - which would have to be applied on an EU basis, given the global nature of retailing nowadays.
2. Much of the increase comes from the national increase in consumerism. Whilst Stroud District Council can do their bit to promote local trading and the reduction of packaging at a local level, they have no power to prevent this at a national level. Therefore, setting a reducing target in an area where people import a lot of consumer items [these in themselves usually overpackaged] is unfair on the collection authority and on the disposal authority. They can only really deal with what is in front of them.
3. One of the biggest consumers out there is local government - so they can apply quite a bit of leverage by optimising their procurement regimes.
4. Most modelling doesn't assume a flat 3% increase anyway. It assumes this sort of rate until about 2010, then decreasing to 1% at about 2015, and then starting to reduce beyond this date. It's a given that the minimisation part of the hierarchy is the hardest goal to attain.
5. The County Strategy at the moment is largely fixed on residual waste management, and rightly so as this is the most important part of their job. However, we could apply pressure to ensure that the recycling infrastructure is optimised as much as possible in order to ensure that the residual is as small as possible. For example, 20% of the municipal waste is kitchen derived organic - if you can collect as much of this as possible, you're making big inroads into tonnages as a result. That's the sort of area that should be concentrated on in my opinion. So a lot of complicating factors.
Interestingly - most areas seem to accept the 3% rise in waste mentioned above - indeed in the 'Stroud facts' below re waste (taken from their website) they also repeat the figure - however we need to get to a greater understanding of this as in Stroud it would appear the rise is not due to more consumerism but more people living in the area - individually the waste stream seems to have stayed about the same - this is not so for all - however it is clear Government action - when they finally wake up to waste - is likely to reduce excess packaging - and oil price rises will significantly impact on all waste - to me it seems no way that waste will continue to rise at this rate.
In order to make decisions about the size of waste facilities we need to have a much better understanding of these figures - these are some of the areas that need exploring more.
Waste, Recycling and Street Cleaning Facts and figures
How many tonnes of waste does the UK produce each year?
434 Million – This is enough waste to fill the Albert Hall every 2 hours
What percentage of this figure do you think goes to landfill?
73% - even though 90% of this is recyclable
How many years worth of space do you think is left in Gloucestershire’s landfill sites?
12 Years – but this is decreasing rapidly as more waste is being produced
Household waste is on the increase each year, by what percentage?
3% - this may not sound like much but it means our waste will double by 2020
How much waste does each household in the Stroud District produce each year?
1 tonne – the size of a small elephant
How many tonnes of litter does the average person drop each year in the UK?
0.5 Tonnes of litter dropped by average person & most littering occur with in 5 meters of litterbin
What percentage of refuse in the average bin in the UK is Food Waste?
26% of waste in bin is food waste
How much energy is saved when recycling aluminium can?
95% energy is saved – can
Approximately, how many kilometres of road are cleaned by Stroud District Council?
2200Km of highway is swept in Stroud District – which is the equivalent distance from Stroud to Rome
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