GOOD NEWS IS NO NEWS!

Last month I considered that a review of the Environmental Permitting system was needed to establish what immediate impact, if any, was occurring. The news so far is that no-one seems to be bothered, let alone the Environment Agency so I shall write that one if and when things hot up. Looking at some of the news in the world of waste over the last month it is amazing to see the impact of recycling on news stories in the national press, sadly much of it is negative and does little to promote recycling, but there are some rays of light. A bit a of a spring clean of an article, but food for thought nonetheless.
Board mills grumble
I recently wrote about the growth of the biomass sector and the domination of the waste wood market by the board mills. On 15/4/08 Letsrecycle.com reported that board mills were concerned over competition for wood from biomass plants. Given that the gate fees charged for waste wood at the mills range from £2 to £42 per tonne it is not surprising that biomass is a growing sector, with or without the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC). The board mills have had it good and had they treated the recycling sector differently by engaging in long term contracts the recycling sector wouldn’t be stampeding towards biomass plants to secure their own futures.
Kerbside enforcers
Some businesses in Devon have been told by South Hams District Council that it does not offer a business recycling scheme and went on to say that anyone taking waste home to recycle could face prosecution. Once again enforcement officers are looking for easy targets. All their advice does is push small businesses into not recycling. If a member of staff drinks a can of pop in the street it can legally be binned but if they drink it in the office it cannot be taken home for recycling. Get a life! I have seen similar comments from enforcement officers on the Waste Matters website (www.wastematters.org.uk/) and cannot understand why vast amounts of public money are used to target well meaning people when the flytippers are the biggest problem to deal with. When you have finished with the flytippers take a look at the minor offences if that gets you going but for goodness sake target the worst offenders first. Prosecutions should be in the public interest and regulators must take a proportionate approach to enforcement if they are to be truly effective.
Mobile phone madness
On 21 April the Guardian reported that a California telecoms company, Hop-on, is marketing a £10 disposable mobile phone in Europe, which has been available in the US since 2002. Early distribution is said to be 150,000 units. The phone can be recycled, has no screen and is pretty basic, being marketed as a back up phone but it can be topped up and not thrown away, if it lasts long enough. In the current consumer climate a product so low down the waste hierarchy seems insane.
Kerbside landfills
Our national press is at it again. The only good waste story is a negative one. Last month the Telegraph reported that thousands of tons of kerbside recyclate ends up in landfill sites or incinerators, based on a survey carried out by the Local Government Association. The resultant statistics led to statements from Friends of the Earth, amongst others, that “… it shows that the way many councils are approaching recycling is just not working”.
Other quotes were used to demonstrate that this practice undermines their confidence, like national newspapers focussing on failures doesn’t? What we do need to do is focus on recycling methods rather than scaring the public, who are more than happy to have their consciences eased by recycling less. Getting them started again is then more difficult.
The article mentions co-mingling of recyclables, which naturally allows more waste to be collected and will also result in some residual material being disposed of. If your local authority doesn’t use that method then the losses should be minimal but Joe public upon reading the article would not know that. The Local Government Association Environment Board have stated that the 240,000 tons disposed of was only 1.6% of the total recycling material collected, in other words we have recycled 15 million tonnes. Whichever side of the argument you take a residual loss of 1.6% is pretty low when compared with many mixed waste streams.
Agency pushes pretreatment compliance
Last year the Environment Agency publicly stated that they would take a light touch on enforcing the pretreatment requirements for waste destined for landfill. So last month it announced that it expects the waste industry to take a tougher stance on the evidence required to prove compliance with the requirement to pretreat wastes going to landfill. Operators will be expected to obtain written confirmation from their customers that waste has been pretreated before landfill. Skip companies actively engaged in recycling are already helping waste producers comply with the pretreatment rules simply by processing their waste. As long as such declarations are provided on transfer notes there is little else to do.
And finally…
The Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) has held its Annual Conference and Exhibition in Torbay for the last 22 years but announced that this year will be its last on the English Riviera. From 2009 the new venue will be London Excel at London Docklands and the CIWM will be teaming up with the Environmental Services Association (ESA) to bring a new recycling based focus to the exhibition. Hopefully this will bring the exhibition closer to the skip industry and provide an alternative event to the MRW’s Recycling and Waste Management Exhibition, held every September at the NEC. It would of course be better placed in the Midlands to make it equally accessible to those of us up North and in Scotland.
Marco Muia BSc (Hons) MSc MCIWM is the Director of Oaktree Environmental Limited. He specialises in all aspects of waste planning and regulation consultancy. He also holds the level 4 COTCs for Hazardous Waste Treatment and Transfer. You can contact Marco on 01606 558833 if you have any questions about this article or e-mail him at enviroman@theskip.net