What is Waste?

The EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) defines waste as any substance or object which the holder discards, intends to, or is required to discard. It is estimated that each year the UK produces around 100 million tonnes of waste from households, commerce, and industry (DEFRA).

Why We Should Minimise Our Waste

For many years, landfill has been opted as the main method in which we dispose of our waste, encouraging us to simply ‘throw it away’. However, it has been widely recognised that the need to divert waste away from landfill by minimising and managing our waste more effectively is an absolute necessity.

From a financial point of view, this is because the management of waste is expensive, and is going to become even more so with the increase of taxes and waste disposal costs (CIWM). This means that by minimising the amounts of waste produced initially, businesses and local councils throughout the UK will not only be able to reduce their overall carbon footprint, but will be able to reduce their overall waste management costs and reap the financial benefits.

From an environmental point of view, this is because the landfilling of waste is having a negative effect on our environment. This is because the biodegradable portion of waste (green waste, food waste, paper/card waste) sent to landfill is broken down by bacteria and releases methane into the atmosphere, a powerful greenhouse gas known to contribute to climate change. It also has a negative effect on our environment as we are unnecessarily throwing away and wasting our valuable existing materials and resources, forcing us to extract and process new raw materials in order to produce virgin material products. By minimising the amounts of waste we produce to start with, and by managing the waste that we do produce effectively by reusing products, recycling materials, and recovering energy from materials which cannot be either reused or recycled, we are able to reduce pollution and conserve our limited natural resources, proactively bringing about environmental benefits.

The Waste Hierarchy

The waste hierarchy is a useful tool which sets out an order of the way in which waste should be managed in order to bring about as little damage to environment as possible. The hierarchy indicates that we must do our best to ensure that first of all waste is prevented and minimised, followed by the re-use of materials and products, the recycling of materials, the recovery of energy from materials, and then finally as a last resource, the landfilling of waste.

Prevention and Minimisation

Waste prevention, also known as waste minimisation and source reduction, is the procedure of reducing the amount of waste produced by a person, or a business organisation.

Household individuals can prevent and minimise their waste by using waste minimisation techniques such as: buying the appropriate amounts and sizes of products when shopping (e.g. don’t buy too much food for a small family that will only go off and go to waste); buy products in bulk so that packaging waste is reduced (e.g. buy economy size washing powder boxes – more washing powder, less packaging); buy products loose where possible (e.g. buy a loose bunch of bananas that can be carried without a bag); avoid buying disposable products where possible (e.g. buy reusable instead of disposable razors); use reusable boxes to store food rather than cling film or foil; buy fewer products that will last longer to reduce packaging waste.

A business organisation can prevent and minimise their waste by reviewing and analysing the manufacturing processes of their products. By reviewing and analysing these processes and making more efficient use of raw materials, packaging, fuel, electricity, water and gas, not only can waste be reduced, but financial savings can be achieved.

Re-use

This is the procedure of re-using products or materials that would otherwise become a waste. Household individuals are able to reduce the amounts of waste they produce by re-using the products they buy. Some examples of this include: taking re-usable carrier bags to the supermarket; using recharchable batteries in order to reduce waste packaging from a new pack of batteries; donating unwanted clothes to charities to be re-used; re-using plastic drinking bottles; refilling printer ink cartridges at local printing shops.

A business organisation can reduce the amounts of waste they produce by re-using scrap material that would otherwise become a waste. If one part of a businesses operational process involves receiving raw materials as packaging (e.g. cardboard boxes), instead of throwing away these raw materials as waste, the business could make use of the material in another area of operation. An example of this would be for a distribution company to shred the cardboard boxes, in which it receives goods, into small, shredded pieces of cardboard, in order to re-use as packaging filler for the packages it sends to its customers. There are also opportunities for the reuse of items or materials outside of the business that exist. There are a number of national charities and organisations that are willing to collect items or materials from businesses in order to be re-used elsewhere.

Recycling

Recycling is the process of taking waste materials and putting them through a process so that they can be used again.

Household individuals can reduce the amounts of waste they produce by recycling used materials within their home that would otherwise be thrown out as waste. Each local authority within the UK offers a kerbside collection service for households collecting a number of different recyclable materials such as paper/card, metals (e.g. tin cans), plastics (e.g. water bottles, milk bottles), and glass. Households can use this service offered to them by segregating their different types of waste materials into specific containers provided by their local authority (e.g. plastics together in one container, paper and card together in another container etc…). Another way of recycling household materials is by taking them to local ‘bring sites’. These sites have a number of different containers, each of which are designed to accept different waste materials. An example of a basic bring site would be a bottle bank. Households are also able to reduce the amounts of food waste they produce by recycling the waste in a home composter. A home composter can be kept in a back garden and is able to convert waste food into readily usable compost.

A business organisation operating within a busy office environment can recycle waste materials by segregating them into their different waste streams in bins within their office. (e.g. waste paper and card together in one container, waste plastics (drinking bottles brought into the office) etc…). A business organisation that manufactures products and uses materials can recycle any waste materials that are produced during manufacture. An example of this would be a paper manufacturing company producing industrial size paper rolls that generate large amounts of paper waste from off cuts and damaged rolls. This waste paper can be recycled by being put back through a pulping process (process used to recycle paper) to produce new paper rolls. Business organisations can also establish markets where they can send waste material to be recycled, in turn generating revenue. Waste exchange schemes can also be established between local businesses where one businesses waste could be of great use to another business, and vice versa.

Energy Recovery

Energy recovery from waste is the process in which energy is recovered from the incineration, pyrolysis, or gasification of waste and used to provide electricity and/or heat. Energy recovery from waste is considered to be the least preffered waste minimisation option in environmental terms (CIWM).

Disposal

Disposal, the last step of the waste hierarchy, is the process in which wastes that cannot, or have not been minimised are sent to be disposed of. Due to legislation, before waste can be sent to landfill it must be pre-treated. Firstly, this is to reduce the environmental impact of the waste that does get sent to landfill, and secondly, to further increase the amounts of materials recycled. The treatment of waste must meet the criteria of ‘the three point test’ in order for the waste to be deemed as being pre-treated; (1) It must be a physical, thermal, chemical or biological process (including sorting); (2) It must change the characteristics of the waste; (3) It must do so in order to: (a) reduce its volume, or; (b) reduce its hazardous nature, or; (c) facilitate its handling, or; (d) enhance its recovery (DEFRA).