Waste to Resources

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Waste to Resources

• Ian Harvey
• Principal Adviser Waste Strategy
• Environment Protection Agency
• presented by BVC 2004

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What is waste?
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How much waste is there?

• Fresh Kills - the worlds largest dumping ground,
  located in Staten Island, New York.
• Provides disposal for five boroughs of NYC -
  receives 12,000 t/day of commercial and household
  waste ( approx 4.3mt/yr).
• 4 square miles, over 100 feet high with 2.9
  billion cubic feet of waste.
• Fresh Kills takes in just 0.018 of the waste
  generated in the USA daily.

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How much waste did you say?

• Total annual waste in the United States
  (excluding wastewater) exceeds 50 trillion pounds
  a year - thats approx 25 trillion kg/yr
• To count to a trillion at the rate of one per
  second would require the entire life-times of
  24,000 people!!
• (Natural Capitalism, 1999)

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History of garbage in Australia

• Early Aboriginal inhabitants produced little
  garbage
• Early European settlers produced little garbage
  (materials and equipment were in short supply and
  hard to get) therefore materials were repaired,
  reused or salvaged for parts.
• During 1800s and early 1900s people practiced
  re-use and recycling (eg no excess packaging,
  refillable containers etc)

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History continued.

• Until 1955 the City of Adelaide disposed of its
  garbage by incineration at Halifax Street depot.
• Most Councils had a local tip (incl. Old
  quarries, sand pits gullies etc and waste was
  burned)
• Located out of the way where disposal was cheap
  and health and environmental issues were not a
  priority.

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Present day

• Rationalisation of landfills.
• Disposal to landfill continues to be the primary
  technology for dealing with waste.
• Recycling and resource recovery enterprises
  struggle to gain a competitive foothold.
• Emergence of new technologies.

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Why do we recycle and why recover resources?

• 4 short stories

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The story of a can
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Waste or a resource?

• The can of English cola
• bauxite - reduction mill (Al oxide waste) - ore
  carrier (overseas) - smelter - Al metal ingots -
  shipped to roller mill (Al sheet metal) - cold
  rolling mill (even thinner sheet metal) - Factory
  where metal is formed into cans
  (washed/painted/lacquered) - bottler
  (washed/filled) - packed and freighted
• Drunk in lt 5 minutes - discarded as a waste or a
  resource worth keeping?

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Still thinking about why?

• Packaging that lasts 400 years to keep on a shelf
  for two months a product that we consume in two
  minutes!
• Throwing the can away takes a second!

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Out of sight...

• Every product we consume has a similar hidden
  history.
• It also has attendant waste generated by its use
  and disposition.
• In Germany, this hidden history is called
  ecological rucksack
• The amount of waste generated to make a
  semiconductor chip is over 100,000 times its
  weight.

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Brain teaser!
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Whats the ecological rucksack of a cupboard?
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You have to ask yourself - why?
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So why do we recycle?

• Is there a shortage of landfills? - No
• Is the cost of disposal too high? - not here
• Is recycling and resource recovery
  cost-effective? - not necessarily in economic
  terms

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Cricket Test Match, Adelaide Oval 1963.
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Football grand final, Adelaide Oval 1973.
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Protest against non-returnable containers,
Parliament House. Adelaide 1974.
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Communities and landfills

• Environmentally and socially acceptable locations
  for landfill facilities are limited.
• Communities are less tolerant of this sort of
  development.
• Increasing recognition and expectation for
  recycling and resource recovery.

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Community opposition
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So what has changed?

• Community awareness
• Increased legislation, compliance
• cost issues - less waste more productivity
• International competitiveness (eg ISO 14001,
  global market place EPR etc)
• Public / community relations
• Liability issues
• New technologies - eg waste to energy
  composting resource recovery etc

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The Waste Hierarchy

• Most preferred
• Avoidance
• Reduction
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Recovery (eg energy)
• Least preferred
• Treatment
• Disposal

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Waste Management Hierarchy
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Measuring waste
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Waste to landfill-Composition-
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B/D waste stream

• Soil 32.4
• Clean fill (lt150mm) 23.1
• Clay 15.7
• Rubble 7.7
• Concrete 7.2
• Rocks/bricks 6.6
• Other 7.4
• eg asphalt, ferrous metal, plasterboard,
  leather/textile tyres / rubber etc

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C/I Composition and quantity

• Food/kitchen 23.2
• Cardboard 16.8
• Garbags 11.5
• Paper 8.9
• Wood/timber 6.8
• Soil 6.1
• Bags/film 5.2
• Vegetation/garden 4.3
• Tyres/rubber 3.9
• Other 13.1

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The story of rocks, bricks, concrete, timber and
things...
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Out of sight
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Waste to resources

• 500,000 - 700,000 tonnes of B/d waste recycled
  every year (concrete asphalt).
• Materials produced - mostly road base and
  aggregates
• fill material - eg landfill management Port
  River Expressway
• Timber - composting fuel (waste to energy)

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The source

• New building construction
• domestic residence generates approx 6 tonne of
  waste per site
• Refurbishment of existing homes
• demolition of existing buildings and structures

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Construction of your home!

• photo

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Commercial demolition

• photo

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Commercial demolition
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Barriers

• Location issues - sites community council
• Supply of feedstock - competition with landfill
  disposal
• Standards and specifications
• Consumer perception / preference
• competition with virgin materials (eg quarried
  products - concessions / Indenture Acts etc)
• cost eg de-construction vs knockdown

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Opportunities

• Greater market share due to green preferences
  eg tenders that specify recycled product
  content
• blended products
• Virgin resource availability - diminishing
  natural capital
• Improved product range and specifications

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The story of organic waste
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What is it?

• Municipal
• Garden waste (kerbside and council)
• Non-municipal
• Commercial green waste
• Commercial food / kitchen waste (23)
• Biosolids (or sewage sludge)
• Farm wastes / intensive agriculture
• Wool scourings
• Other (eg grain dust fish wastes etc)

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How much is there?

• Total quantity of recyclable organics generated
  is 244,000 t/yr.
• Refers only to organic waste from parks, yards,
  road reserves and gardens.
• Total quantity of organics recycled in Adelaide
  (from municipal an non-municipal sources) is
  approx 93,000 t/yr (38).
• The total quantity of recyclable organics
  disposed to landfill is 151,000 t/yr (62).

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B 1 and B 2 (and 3, 4)
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Exercise Ecological rucksack of a lettuce!
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From waste to resources

• compost
• mulch
• soil conditioner
• Horticulture viticulture domestic sales
• Conserve landfill space

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Barriers

• Location sites community council
• Low technology - environmental impacts
• odour dust leachates gases
• standards and specifications
• contamination (plastics metals - needles etc)
• health issues (eg Legionella)
• competition with chemical fertilisers
• uncertainty of supply

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Opportunities

• Agricultural practices
• the Green revolution - organic farming
• nurseries, orchards, market gardens, cut flowers,
  mushroom growers, viticulture, forestry
• Water conservation / retention applications
• Waste to energy (grape marc animal wastes)
• bio-fuels (syngas organic residue)
• Rehabilitation - eg quarry site landfills etc

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The man of steel!
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The story of metal

• Ferrous metals recycling
• South Australia (not including internal re-use),
  175,000 tonnes
• Adelaide metro, 122,500 tonnes
• Commercial / Industrial 61,000 tonnes
• Little data available for non-ferrous metals, -
  estimated at 30,000 tonnes
• (source Business SA)

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Waste to resources
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Collection
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Dont transport air!
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Simsmetal - Adelaide
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Simsmetal shredder - Adelaide
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Flock
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Lets focus on vehicles

• Australia 12 million vehicles registered
• attrition rate of 573,000 vehicles annually
• South Australia - 1 million vehicles
• 45,000 vehicles retired annually
• average vehicle life in SA of 10 - 12 years

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In Europe

• Europe
• 160 million registered vehicles
• 14 million deregistered annually
• 12 million shredded annually
• The Directive 2000/53/EC of the European
  Parliament and of the Council of 18 September
  2000 on end-of life vehicles

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The Directive

• 2002 incorporate into legislation
• 2003 no hazardous substances
• 2006 - minimum 85 for reuse and recovery,
  minimum 80 for reuse and recycling
• 2015 - minimum 95 reuse and recovery, minimum
  85 for reuse and recycling

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In Australia

• metal
• plastic bumpers (Holden)
• lead acid batteries
• waste lubricating oil
• tyres
• No specific legislation dealing with end of life
  vehiclesyet!

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What can Government do?

• Proposed new waste policy
• To shift waste management from waste disposal to
  resource recovery, effectively leading to zero
  waste going to landfill.
• ZERO WASTE - a journey rather than a destination

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What should the policy do?

• Economic measures - to discourage and encourage.
• Bans to landfill
• Measures to increase product stewardship cleaner
  production polluter pays, etc

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The Bottom line

• ...is that while recycling and resource recovery
  is not always profitable for businesses in the
  short term, it is nonetheless a valid response to
  a long-term environmental problem, which cannot
  be reduced to narrowly economic terms.

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Conclusion continued

• The identification of broader environmental
  objectives does not mean, however, that recycling
  or resource recovery programs are detached from
  the economy or can afford to ignore questions of
  cost-effectiveness and efficiency.
• However

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Conclusion continued

• It is important to keep trying to improve the
  bottom line results of recycling programs and
  equally important to remember that the ultimate
  measure of success for resource recovery and
  recycling will not always be found on a balance
  sheet.
• Ultimately, sustainability is about achieving
  quality of life for all within the means of
  nature.

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What to remember

• The Waste Hierarchy
• The story of a can of cola
• Sustainability will not always appear on the
  positive side of the ledgerbut it should not
  necessarily be be perceived through a monetary
  lens!!

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Questions?

• Thanks