Waste and recycling

1
Waste and recycling

• Lecture 7

2
Defining waste

• 'Material that the producer or owner wants to
  discard
• One mans waste is anothers gold.

3
Methods of waste disposal
4
Total industrial and domestic waste arising in
the UK

• 400 Million Tonnes Of Waste in England Wales

5
England Wales Waste Strategy (2000)

• 1998/9 42 million tonnes of waste was landfilled
• 2005 40 of waste will be recovered
• 2010 45 of waste will be recovered
• 2015 67 of waste will be recovered

6
Environment Protection Act 1990

• Businesses must be aware of how much waste they
  produce
• Waste must be collected by a registered collector
• A note must accompany the waste
• The waste must be dealt with legally

7
Waste

• Classifying your waste
• Dealing with waste
• Waste reduction
• Promote re-use
• Promote double sided printing
• Control photocopying
• Use central printing facilities

8
Waste

• Try to store information on electronic systems
• Get rid of flip charts - use a white board
• Hold a stationery amnesty to retrieve stray items
• Waste exchange
• Establish recycling rate
• Consider whether paper material is really
  confidential (does it really need to be
  shredded?)
• Give your cleaners a new role as managers of
  waste.

9
Office waste

• Paper
• Two bins per office
• Ask staff to sort out waste
• Vending cups
• Can be recycled
• Use mugs
• IT Equipment
• Donate old PCs to schools, job clubs etc.
• Upgrade rather than buy new.
• Monitors need not be replaced as often as
  hardware.

10
Office waste

• Toner cartridges
• Recycle
• Mobile phones
• Recycle
• Batteries
• Recycle used batteries
• Invest in rechargeable batteries

11
Waste

• Fluorescent tubes
• change lamps all at once
• maintain lighting
• will save energy.
• organise this with a contractor. If you do this
  yourself on an individual lamp basis you should
  have one tube per six refuse bag.

12
Waste

• Furniture
• Reuse
• Refurbish
• Give to charity

13
Buying

• Do you really need the product?
• Try to buy recycled or refurbished
• Can you lower the specification?
• Does it contain recycled or reused materials?

14
Buying

• Consider longevity and the life cycle of a
  product
• Does it produce chemicals?
• Once obsolete can the product be recycled?

15
Suppliers

• Always plan your purchasing
• Some use supplier questionnaires
• Consider how recyclable and how efficient their
  products are.
• Address whether they over-use packaging.

16
Recycling iron

• 1 ton iron recycled
• Replaces 1 ton iron mined
• Avoids creation of
• Several tonnes mine tailings
• Ore-processing wastes

17
Waste recycling in Germany
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Plastic bags

• UK in 2001
• 1,678,900 tonnes of waste plastic packaging
• 8 billion plastic bags per year
• 134 bags per person
• Ireland 9p per plastic bag
• Biodegradable plastic
• Germany cloth bags

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Recycled paper products

• Cellulose Insulation
• Office Supplies
• Packaging Materials
• Paper Products
• Office Papers
• Paperboard
• Printing Papers
• Computer Paper
• Tissue Papers

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Recycled paper products

• Recycled paper
• Smaller mills
• Higher cost
• Reduce cost co-operative purchasing
• Increases volume purchased
• Ensures availability
• Lowers costs

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References

• http//www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/p
  lastics.htm
• http//www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/index.ht
  m
• http//www.crazycolour.com/os/recycling_11.shtml
• http//www.edie.net/gf.cfm?Lleft_frame.htmlRhtt
  p//www.edie.net/news/Archive/5565.cfm
• http//www.degradable.net/home/