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Home , Photodegradation

Talk on Management at Swansea Council Speaker: Ian Whettleton, Divisional Waste Manager

Introduction

Global Recession

The information contained in this report applies mainly to a situation where the economy is good and growing, and there is an healthy demand for recyclable. During the current recession and down turn in the economy the reverse is true. Over the past few years the push for with its reliance on the global market and failure to develop domestic outlets could be said to have been short-sighted. In the meantime money raised through the sale of recyclable items is being replaced by losses that will have to be paid for by council-tax payers It is disturbing that the collapse in the value of recyclable goods is almost entirely down to the falling demand from the Chinese market. With recession biting across the Western world, there is less demand for the goods that China produces. As a result, there is less demand for the raw materials with which to make those goods and the packaging in which they would have been transported.

Before the following higher recycling targets can be met there must be solid and sustainable markets to accommodate them. Steel, and paper are the commodities most affected by the downturn in demand. Simple economics dictate that without income from the sale of recyclables, council and firms will be unable to offset the cost of collection and transport let alone to turn in a profit.

There is a report from The Institution of Mechanical Engineers that fifth of Britain's electricity could be generated from 300 million tons of food, paper, packaging and junk thrown away every year. With the global credit crunch hitting the demand for recyclables, recycled goods and the targets for recycling waste looking unattainable. The report concludes that much of the waste currently sent for recycling could be used to generated electricity and heat and that every town and city should have its generator. The latest generation of energy-from-waste plants release almost no pollution, making them a genuinely green alternative to wind turbines. Along side the generation of electricity the produced could be piped to nearby homes homes, schools and public buildings. Recycling could then be used just for waste products which cannot be more sustainably converted into electricity, heat or transport fuels.

Waste Management in Swansea

PLANS for a 25-year solution to waste management in Swansea need to be revised following a decision by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) to reconsider recycling targets. Up to now local authorities like Swansea have been working towards a recycling target of 40% by 2010. But now WAG has proposed raising that figure substantially to 70% by 2024/25. It means that the council's strategy to deal with the huge amounts of household and trade waste produced in the city is being looked at fresh. Almost 30 per cent of waste is currently recycled each year, but the new approach needs to ensure that the environment is protected for future generations.

The WAG proposed tough targets for councils to increase recycling are backed by powers to fine councils who do not reduce their reliance on . Despite the council's efforts to recycle and , they still need to deal with residual household waste. Historically this has been sent to landfill, something that is both damaging to the environment and a strain on the remaining landfill sites in Wales. Now, instead of land filling the council is being forced to do something useful with waste, recovering value and resources and reducing the reliance on landfill. Taking into account the balance between recycling, the extent of the materials collected and the residual waste requiring treatment.

Using a series of good illustrated slides Ian outlined the challenges faced by the council to reduce dependency on landfill and introduce more sustainable methods of waste management. The three main external drivers behind these challenges are:

• The EU • The National Waste Strategy – Wise about Waste • (going up to £58 per tonne by 2011).

The EU landfill directive sets targets to reduce the quantities of biodegradable Municipal waste disposed to landfill. The waste strategy sets targets for recycling and composting. The landfill tax is designed to increase the cost of disposing of waste to landfill.

Technology for dealing with the residual waste?

The Council have not yet agreed a specific technology. They believe an integrated approach is the way forward as it allows different solutions to be combined so that waste production is reduced, recycling (including composting) is maximised and waste that should not be landfilled but cannot be recycled is treated. Their preferred options to treat waste, in order that landfill is kept to a minimum, are mechanical biological treatment and/or waste to energy. This approach is based on the ambitions of the waste strategy for Wales found in 'Wise about Waste' and the European hierarchy of waste management.

Whatever the council decides is the best technology for waste in Swansea their main aim is to recycle as much as they can. They want as many people as possible recycling as much as they can.

To meet the environmental, economic and legislative challenges the Council will have to make a number of choices.

These choices will be based on finding the Best Value option in terms of providing an infrastructure for the area, taking into account future waste trends, planning, transportation and land issues, including an assessment of the suitability of potential locations. There are a number of technical solutions being consider: • Recycling • Composting • Mechanical Biological Treatment • Energy from Waste • The council will seek to choose a technology that will provide a sustainable solution that meets the following criteria:

1. acceptable to stakeholders. 2. accords with the Regional and Local Waste Plans. 3. delivers best value. 4. is also affordable. To help in the evaluation of different technologies they will obtain the level of interest of prospective companies who provide different waste management technologies. Recycling

The Council provides a number of recycling sites across the City so that members of the public can dispose of their recyclable waste, such as glass, paper, cans and textiles. The Kerbside Recycling collection service for paper, glass, cans and card has been extended and is now offered to every home in Swansea.

The Council also works closely with the Environment Centre in Swansea who deliver a comprehensive education programme concerning waste, recycling and other relevant environmental issues to schools, colleges and other community groups.

Kerbside Collection Scheme

The Kerbside Recycling collection service for paper, glass, cans and card is offered to every home in Swansea.

The Green Bag scheme

Glass, paper, cans and card are collected on a fortnightly basis from the kerbside in a green semi- transparent bag. The collections are made on the same day as the black bag refuse collection.

How it works

Each house is provided with a supply of semi-transparent green bags into which they can put glass, paper, cans and card for recycling. Paper and card must go in a bag on it's own, but glass and cans can be put together in the same bag. The bags can then be placed on the kerbside, in the same place as the black bags, ready for collection once a fortnight.

Do not use the green bags for general household rubbish - they will not be collected.

Need more bags?

A re-usable Bag Tag is available for when you need to order more bags. Simply write your address on the Bag Tag and attach it to one of your bags which are to be collected. The collection crews will remove the Bag Tag and redeliver it to you along with a new supply of bags.

Green recycling bags and Bag Tags are also available from the Civic Centre and District Housing Offices.

What can be put in Green Bags

Paper: Newspaper, catalogues, magazines, yellow pages, junk mail, office paper, telephone directories, shredded paper, white envelopes (including the transparent window), and small items of card. Do Not put in Wallpaper, brown envelopes, tissues and brown corrugated cardboard.

Glass: Clean bottles and jars with lids removed. Do Not put in broken glass, mirrors, Pyrex or drinking glasses. Cans: Clean food and drink cans. Do Not put in paint tins, oil cans or aluminium foil.

Glass and cans can be put in the same bag, but paper and card must be kept on its own.

If there is no-one in the household who is physically able to carry the bag to the kerbside you can arrange for it to be collected from your doorstep by phoning 01792 635600 to arrange this.

Plastic and plastic bottles are not collected at this time. These can be taken to the Civic Amenity and Recycling Sites.

From Monday 3rd November cardboard such as cardboard packaging and corrugated boxes will be collected from the kerbside - All Houses Now Included.

Improper use of the scheme

The council will not impose a fine unless you get it wrong time after time and don't respond to any notices or correspondence trying to help to get it right. They want to encourage recycling not put people off and will offer every assistance for taking part. Don't forget the bags have information printed on them telling you what is accepted in the bags. They also have all the council contact details if there are any problems and further help is needed.

If a bag is left behind and with a yellow sticker on it you will have mixed up the materials incorrectly or put something in that is not collected at the kerbside. If this is the case take the bag back in and re-bag the materials correctly. If a bag is left out it may get taken away by one of the council's enforcement officers. They will then write explaining what was wrong and how to get it right.

Do not put bags out days in advance and just leave it on the pavement. It might get kicked around making a mess in the neighbourhood. Again, if this is done a letter will be sent confirming the correct collection day. Bags should be out by 7.00a.m. on collection day but not before 7.00p.m. the previous evening. Getting it all correct means that bags are out on the street for the shortest possible time and helps to keep the community clean and tidy.

Remember

• To put bags out on the kerbside by 7.30am on your collection day. • Calendars are available of the collection weeks. • To wash out all bottles and jars and remove their tops. • To only include the items on the above list - including any other item will result in your bag NOT being collected. • To keep your paper in a separate bag. • Do not use the green bags for anything other than paper, glass and cans as they will not be collected.

For further information about the Scheme or any other recycling issues please contact the recycling office on (01792) 635600 or email [email protected] Garden Waste

Garden waste is not classified as refuse and is not required to be taken away by the dustbin men or the recycling team. As an extra service to residents the council provides brown plastic bags which can be purchased for 35p each, into which garden waste can be put for the dustbin men to take away with the normal refuse for disposal in landfill sites.

The garden waste can be taken down, in person, to the recycling sites where it can be put the appropriate 'skip' from where it will taken away for recycling. The council, at this stage, has no facilities or funding to collect garden waste put out in brown bags for a separate collection that could then be put in for recycling. Most of the garden waste that is taken to the community disposal sites is recycled into compost material and made available at no charge to the general public and for use by the council's parks department.

White Bag Scheme

The council is planning to role out a white bag scheme across the whole of the county in the near future. The council will provide every household with 2 free reusable white bags, and up to 8 bags at £2 each can be purchased from the Contact Centre in the Civic Centre. Any loss of the original 2 bags will be replaced free of charge. When in operation the council will not collect garden waste from any other container or bag. To find out when your street will enter the scheme phone 01792 635600 or check the website www.swansea.gov.uk/recycling.

Garden waste is classified as hedge and lawn cutting, leaves and plant matter, sticks and twigs. Do Not include large branches or logs, soil, stones or rubble, food waste, invasive plant e.g. Japanese Knotweed, plastic bags or animal waste. These just contaminate the recycling process.

Kitchen Waste

A kitchen service is available to same homes that currently benefit from the garden waste scheme. Those in the scheme are provided with two bins; a larger bin to keep outside and a handy caddy to keep in the kitchen. Collections are made fortnightly on the same day as the green bags and garden waste. During 2009 almost all homes will be given a weekly service.

The kitchen waste must not be put in plastic carrier bags, even biodegradable ones, or put any plastic waste in the bin. This will result in the waste not being collected. Food waste can be wrapped in newspaper, or brown paper bag liners which are available from participating supermarkets and shops.

You can put; fruit and vegetable peelings, eggs shells, tea bags coffee grounds, left over cooked food (e.g. rice, pasta, vegetables), stale bread, seeds, cereals, cheese, small items of card that have been in contact with food or food waste. Later in 2009 meat and fish waste can be put in the kitchen waste bin. Do Not put bones in the kitchen waste bin.

Home Composting

Home composting can also reduce waste going to landfill sites. Composting is a natural process that converts organic waste into a valuable material for the garden. Compost bins can be purchased via the Swansea Home Composting Campaign for £12.00 (saving 60% off normal retail price) phone 01792 635600 for more information. Do not put cooked food (meat, fish, bones, vegetables), diseased plants, thick hedge trimmings, invasive weeds and plants, books, carpet, underlay chemicals foil, glass, metals, plastic, fabric, wallpaper, animal waste, coal ash and soot.

Cardboard Recycling

This kerbside recycling service should divert 1,000 more tonnes of cardboard from landfill every year.

Currently small items of clean cardboard such as cereal or washing powder boxes can be recycled as part of the paper kerbside collection but, now larger items such as big cardboard boxes or corrugated cardboard can be put out as well. The cardboard will be collected on the normal recycling collection day. The cardboard for collection should be flattened and tied but not taped together. It doesn't matter if it gets wet but make sure it's secure on windy days.

Welsh Assembly Government targets say every community in Wales must be recycling 40 per cent of its waste by 2010. Swansea is already three-quarters of the way there and the Council hopes the new cardboard collection will help them hit the target.

Community Recycling Sites (Civic Amenity Sites)

All the CRS accept: glass, cans, paper, cardboard,textile/clothes, shoes, metal, aluminium foil, batteries, electrical goods, , wood, gas cylinders, televisions, monitors, mixed plastic, cooking oil and tetra pak cartons. With the addition of the following at our local Clyne Community Recycling Site, Derwen Fawr Road, Clyne. Books, fluorescent tubes, paint and household chemicals, mobile phones, inkjet/toner cartridges, large domestic appliances, plastic windows/doors, windows/plate glass and waste engine oil. The CRS are open 7 days a week during the following times: 8.00am to 6.30pm BST and 8.30am to 5.00pm GMT. Closed Christmas Day and New Years Day only. For a full list of CRS phone 01792 635600 or the council's website: www.swansea.gov.uk/recycling.

What Happens To Our Recycling From our kerbside ‘sort’ schemes the recyclables collected are sorted into their respective materials and then taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and sorted further. At the MRF, all the mixed recycling is sorted and separated into different types of materials by hand or machine (or both) before being sent to manufacturers who make it into new products. Once collected and sorted, recycled materials become valuable commodities in the worldwide market. There are recycling plants in the UK, reprocessing million of tonnes of material every year. For example: • all of the newsprint manufactured here in the UK is now made from 100% recycled paper; • all of the organic (garden and kitchen) waste collected is recycled here, usually quite close to where it is collected; and • over 80% of the glass collected for recycling is used in the UK, the majority of it to make new glass bottles and jars. There is an ever increasing range of high quality products that are made in the UK from recycled materials. Countries such as China are/were prepared to pay high prices for recyclables such as waste plastic; mainly because they do not have readily available sources of virgin materials (no indigenous forests or oil supplies) and they have a large manufacturing industry that requires these products. Even though exporting our recyclables means a bigger recycling loop because recyclable materials are transported further, it is still a better environmental option than using virgin, raw materials because: • it minimises the need to use our natural resources such as oil • using recycled materials significantly reduces energy use and carbon emissions during the manufacturing process; • the transport impacts are reduced because the materials are transported in container ships returning to China after bringing the goods to the UK; and • it means those materials are not being landfilled.

Facts and Figures Information collected for Defra by the Environment Agency on shows how much material is exported and how much is recycled in the UK: Material Reprocessed in the UK Reprocessed Abroad Paper 49.00% 51.00% Glass 81% 19% Aluminium 66% 34% Plastic 33% 67% Wood 100% 0% The CPI figures, which include newsprint, indicate a balance of about 47% domestic reprocessing and 53% export.

The Recycling of Waste Paper Paper is the number one material that we throw away. For every 100 pounds of rubbish we throw away, 35 pounds is paper. Newspapers take up about 14 percent of landfill space, and paper in packaging accounts for another 15 to 20 percent. Paper has many forms. It can be glossy or ragged, thin or thick. It can be the stuff of newspapers or the stuffing of disposable nappies. Most paper products are made from trees that have been cut and pulped, though paper can also be made from old cloth or grass.

How Paper is Made Paper making uses a natural, renewable resource, trees! The first step in paper making is harvesting the trees. Paper companies plant trees specifically for paper making, much like an apple farmer grows apple trees to produce apples. If one tree is cut down, another is planted to replace it. After the trees are harvested, they are delivered to a paper mill. Paper mills use every part of the tree so nothing is wasted. The bark and roots are burned and used for energy to run the paper mill. The rest of the tree is chopped into small chips for pulping. Pulping is a chemical process that separates the wood fibres from lignin and other wood parts. Pulp is the soft, spongy part of a tree. Lignin is the glue that holds a tree together. If lignin is left in a paper product, the paper turns yellow and brittle when it’s exposed to light. You have probably noticed that newspapers turn yellow very quickly. Lignin is usually left in newsprint, since newspapers are only meant to last a day or so. After pulping, paper is the colour of grocery bags. High quality papers are whitened with chlorine bleach and sometimes coated with clays and adhesives to give them a glossy finish. Paper mills need a lot of energy to produce paper. About 50 percent of their energy can come from wood that cannot be used to make paper. The rest of the energy is purchased from the power company or generated on site by the mill using other energy sources. Recycled Paper Recycled paper is made from waste paper, usually mixed with fresh wood pulp. If the paper contains ink, the paper must be de-inked. De-inking also removes fillers, clays, and fibre fragments. Almost all paper can be recycled today, but some types are harder to recycle than others. Papers that are waxed, pasted, or gummed, or papers that are coated with plastic or aluminium foil, are usually not recycled because the process is too expensive. Even papers that are recycled are not usually recycled together. Waste papers should be sorted. You shouldn’t mix newspapers and cardboard boxes together for recycling. Different grades of paper are recycled into different types of new products. Old newspapers are usually made into new newsprint, egg cartons, or paper-board. Old corrugated boxes are made into new corrugated boxes or paper-board. High-grade white office paper can be made into almost any new paper product, stationery, newsprint, or paper for magazines and books. Sometimes recyclers ask you to remove the glossy inserts that come with newspapers. The newsprint and glossy inserts are different types of paper. Glossy inserts have a heavy clay coating that some paper mills cannot accept. Besides, a paper mill gets more recyclable fibres from a ton of pure newsprint than it does from a ton of mixed newsprint that is weighed down with heavy clay- coated papers. Unlike most other recyclables, paper cannot be recycled over and over again. Eventually the fibres become too weak and short to be used again. That is why virgin paper fibre is usually mixed with recycled paper when new paper products are made. Most cardboard boxes are a mixture of 50 percent new and 50 percent recycled fibres So does paper recycling save energy? Yes it does, although the energy savings are not as spectacular as they are with aluminium and steel recycling. A paper mill uses 40 percent less energy to make paper from recycled paper than it does to make paper from fresh timber. However, a recycling mill may consume more fossil fuels than a paper mill. Paper mills generate much of their energy from waste wood, but recycling mills purchase most of their energy from the power company or use on-site co-generation facilities. Making recycled paper does require fewer chemicals and bleaches than making all-new paper. Although recycled paper is less polluting than paper made from wood fibre, both processes produce different by-products. Paper mills may emit more sulphur dioxide, but recycling mills may produce more sludge. De-inking can results in 22 pounds of sludge for every 100 pounds of waste paper recycled. Paper recycling does mean fewer trees are used to make paper, but all-new paper is almost always made from trees specifically grown for paper making. A tree harvested for paper making is soon replaced by another, so the cycle continues. We are not talking about the rain forest or old growth. Most of the trees cut for paper come from fifth or sixth generation pulp-wood forests. Recycling Glass Glass is used to package many food products: juices, jellies, vegetable oils, baby food, and so on. Glass makes up about five percent of the stream by weight, two percent by volume. After source reduction (using less glass to make a glass jar, for example), the best way to deal with waste glass is recycling. Unlike paper, burning glass in waste-to-energy plants is not a good alternative to recycling. Glass does not provide any heat energy for making steam or electricity. Paper burns in a waste-to-energy plant; glass just melts. Land filling glass recovers none of its value either. So, recycling is usually the best choice. Recycling glass is a relatively good energy saver. Using recycled glass to make new glass products requires 40 percent less energy than making it from all new materials. It saves energy because crushed glass, called cullet, melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials used to make glass. New glass is made from sand, soda ash, and limestone. Old glass is easily made into new glass jars and bottles or into other glass products like fibreglass insulation. And unlike paper, glass jars and bottles can be recycled over and over again. The glass doesn’t wear out. How To Recycle Glass Preparing your used glass containers for recycling is easy. All you need to do is remove their lids or caps and rinse the containers in water. You don’t need to scrub off the labels, since they will burn up when the glass is melted down for recycling. Most recyclers ask you to sort glass containers by colour—clear, green, or amber (golden brown). Once glass has been coloured, the colour cannot be removed. That means a maker of clear glass jars cannot use coloured cullet. Why do some manufacturers package their foods and beverages in green or amber coloured glass containers? The coloured glass protects some sensitive foods and beverages from light. You cannot recycle all glass products. Light bulbs, ceramics, glass mirrors, windowpanes, and dishes are not made with the same materials as glass jars and bottles, so they should not be mixed in with glass recyclables. Still, it’s the bottles and jars that we throw away every day, not the light bulbs and dishes, that make up most of our waste. Plastic We are using plastic products more than ever before. Cover our food in plastic wrap, drink coffee from polystyrene cups, wear clothes made from man-made fibres like nylon, polyester, and rayon, and even buy our plastic things with plastic credit cards! We use plastic hundreds of times every day. Plastic is a versatile product. Plastic can be flexible or rigid; transparent or opaque. It can look like leather, wood, or silk. It can be made into toys or heart valves. Altogether there are more than 10,000 different kinds of plastics. The basic raw materials for plastic are petroleum and/or natural gas. These fossil fuels are sometimes combined with other elements, such as , hydrogen or chlorine, to make different types of plastic. Plastics are not the waste and energy culprits that you may think they are. Plastics are very energy efficient. It takes 20-40 percent less energy to manufacture plastic grocery bags than paper ones. And, since plastics are lightweight and take up so little space, it is much more efficient to transport them. It takes seven lorries to deliver the same number of paper bags as can be carried in one lorry load of plastic bags. DECODING PLASTICS PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) Two-litre beverage bottles, mouthwash bottles, boil-in-bag pouches. HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) Milk jugs, rubbish bags, detergent bottles. PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) Cooking oil bottles, packaging around meat. LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene) Grocery bags, produce bags, food wrap, bread bags. PP () Yoghurt containers, shampoo bottles, straws, margarine tubs, nappies. PS (Polystyrene) Hot beverage cups, take-home boxes, egg cartons, meat trays, CD cases. OTHER All other types of plastics or packaging are made from more than one type of plastic. DISPOSING OF PLASTIC By weight, plastics make up about 11 percent of municipal solid waste. In comparison, paper makes up about 35 percent. Of course, plastics are generally very lightweight. When plastics are buried in a landfill, they occupy about 25 percent of the space. Putting plastics into is not always the best disposal method. There are two other alternatives: recycling and . These methods recover some of the value from the plastic. Recycling recovers the raw material, which can then be used to make new plastic products. Incineration recovers the chemical energy, which can be used to produce steam and electricity. Land filling plastics does neither of these things. The value of landfilled plastic is buried forever. RECYCLING PLASTICS Recycling plastics is easy. First, you should learn what types of plastics can be recycled and only give your collector those types of plastics. Resist the temptation to slip plastics that recyclers don’t want into the . Plastics have different formulations and should be sorted before they are recycled to make new products. Mixed plastics can be recycled, but they are not as valuable as sorted plastics because the recycled plastic’s physical properties, such as strength, may vary with each batch. Once you know what kinds of plastics your recycler wants, you should follow the wash and squash rule - rinse the container and squash it. You may leave the paper labels on the container, but take off the plastic caps (can be collected for charity events). Plastic caps are usually made from a different type of plastic than the container and cannot be easily recycled.

HOW PLASTIC IS RECYCLED A recycling plant uses seven steps to turn plastic waste into recycled plastic: 1. Inspection Workers inspect the plastic rubbish for contaminants like rock and glass, and for plastics that the plant cannot recycle. 2. Chopping and Washing The plastic is washed and chopped into flakes. 3. Flotation Tank If mixed plastics are being recycled, they are sorted in a flotation tank, where some types of plastic sink and others float. 4. Drying The plastic flakes are dried in a tumble dryer. 5. Melting The dried flakes are fed into an extruder, where heat and pressure melt the plastic. Different types of plastics melt at different temperatures. 6. Filtering The molten plastic is forced through a fine screen to remove any contaminants that slipped through the washing process. The molten plastic is then formed into strands. 7. Palletising The strands are cooled in water, then chopped into uniform pellets. Manufacturing companies buy the plastic pellets from recyclers to make new products. Recycled plastics also can be made into garden furnitures, flowerpots and carpeting. ENERGY FROM PLASTIC Because plastics are made from fossil fuels, you can think of them as another form of stored energy. Pound for pound, plastics contain as much energy as petroleum or natural gas, and much more energy than other types of rubbish. This makes plastic an ideal fuel for waste-to-energy plants. Waste-to-energy plants burn rubbish and use the heat energy released during combustion to make steam or electricity. They turn rubbish into useful energy. So, should we burn plastics or recycle them? It depends. Sometimes it takes more energy to make a product from recycled plastics than it does to make it from all-new materials. If that’s the case, it makes more sense to burn the plastics at a waste-to-energy plant than to recycle them. Burning plastics, with safeguards, can supply an abundant amount of energy, while reducing the cost of waste disposal and saving landfill space.

PAPER OR PLASTIC? A paper cup or a plastic cup? Should you choose paper cups over plastic cups since the paper cups are made from natural wood products and will degrade? Not if the plastic cup is polystyrene. A Canadian study found that making a paper cup uses as much petroleum or natural gas as a polystyrene cup. Plus, the paper cup uses wood pulp. The paper cup consumes 12 times as much steam, 36 times as much electricity, and twice as much cooling water as the plastic cup. And because the paper cup uses more raw materials and energy, it also costs 2.5 times more than the plastic cup. But the paper cup will degrade, right? Probably not. Modern landfills are designed to inhibit degradation so that toxic do not seep into the surrounding soil and groundwater. The paper cup could still be a paper cup 20 years from now. .

DEGRADABLE plastic Degrade is another word for rot. It’s nature’s way of getting rid of dead plants and animals or the things made from them. Of course, plastics are man-made materials, but scientists have figured out two ways to make plastics degrade: and photodegradation. Biodegradable plastics are made with five percent cornstarch or vegetable oil. The idea is that hungry bacteria will devour the starch or oil in the plastic, causing the plastic to disintegrate into a fine dust. That is the idea, but does it really work? No, say both environmentalists and plastics manufacturers. Nothing degrades quickly in a modern landfill, not even organic wastes like paper and food scraps, so there is no reason to think that the corn starch in biodegradable plastics will disappear overnight either. Modern landfills are designed to inhibit degradation, not promote it. The idea is to keep wastes in, so landfill contaminants do not seep into the surrounding environment. In addition, biodegradable plastics cannot be recycled because the starch or oil additive compromises the quality of recycled plastics. Photodegradable plastics are a different matter. They use no organic additives. They are made with a special type of plastic that breaks down and becomes brittle in the presence of . Of course, that means photodegradable plastics do not break down when they are covered by leaves or snow, or when they are buried in a landfill. The maker of the plastic six-ring carrier that is used to attach six cans of soft-drinks, beer, and other beverages, says its photodegradable carrier loses 75 percent of its strength when exposed to sunlight after just a few days, and totally disintegrates within a matter of weeks. This means if an animal were to become entangled in the six-ring carrier, it could rip through the weakened pack to free itself. Since photodegradable plastics contain no organic additives, they can also be recycled, unlike their biodegradable cousins.

Why Are We Not RECYCLING More? There is no simple answer. Part of the issue in recycling plastics is the cost. To remain competitive in the global marketplace, manufacturers usually choose the cheapest option for making products. New plastic resin, or virgin resin, often costs less than recycled plastic. Until recently, virgin resin was cheaper than recycled plastic. But when the cost of oil and natural gas increased, the building blocks of virgin resins, due to limited supplies and Global use. Prices for virgin resin soared, and the demand for recycled plastics increased.

Another important consideration is human behaviour. Surveys conducted by Proctor & Gamble and other companies show that while most people expect their plastic to be recycled, they won't go out of their way or pay a few pence more to buy products made of recycled plastic.

There are success stories in plastics recycling, nonetheless. Soft-drink bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be melted down and made into carpet, t-shirts, stuffing for ski jackets, or moulded into bottles again. In 1999, Ford Motor Company used more than 60 million 2-litre plastic soft-drink bottles (7.5 million pounds) to make grill reinforcements, window frames, engine covers and boot carpets for its new vehicles.

In recent years, several plastics recycling companies have closed their doors. Subjected to the vagaries of the price of oil, they claimed they could not sell their products at a price that would allow them to stay in business when cost of petroleum is relatively low, and the price of virgin plastic is so inexpensive that recycled plastic cannot compete. The price of virgin resin can be about 40 percent lower than that of recycled resin.

When recycled plastic is more expensive, people aren’t exactly lining up to buy it. Recyclers say plastics recycling won’t be profitable until the loop is closed by creating more demand for recycled plastics.

The End Game

Solutions to the current crisis are a bit thin on the ground. At the moment, councils, waste contractors and processing firms are looking to stockpile incoming recyclable goods. To do this they have to ask the Environment Agency to relax the rules governing how waste can be stored and for what length of time. But there are concerns that warehouses full of household waste could attract vermin and be a fire risk. The other longer term solution is to ensure Britain is less dependent upon overseas markets.

In some council areas, such as Somerset, Derby and Hertfordshire, they are axing some of their recycling banks and no longer collecting some types of plastics to weather the recessional storm. The greatest fear in all of this, of course, is that recycling doesn't pay for itself. Then council-tax payers will have to pick up the bill. Whether people will be willing to pay more for the sake of the environment in these straitened times is very uncertain.

The mantra we generally hear is recycle, but, is recycling always the best solution? Maybe it is time to abandon the focus on recycling as the only way to get rid of landfills, as this is becoming unachievable and is clearly deceiving what is really happening to our waste. Maybe the Government and Council should look again at their recycling and energy plans and include energy from waste as a key component of green energy.

So for local authorities, waste management is a very hot topic. They are under pressure to reduce the amount of rubbish they send to landfill sites, where it pollutes the environment and gives off methane, which is 20 times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Local authorities have been told in no uncertain term to look for greener ways to deal with rubbish and are being penalised for excessive use of landfill sites.

Mechanical biodegradable treatment sorts waste and then converts biodegradable matter into fuel. Anaerobic digestion converts food into electricity. Britain lags behind the rest of Europe in waste management, but it is playing catch-up. Working in partnership with other local authorities and businesses to develop these and other technological solutions might be an economic way forward. As we have seen waste management is not immune to economic downturns – if people buy less, companies trade less, and create less rubbish. Authorities and waste management businesses at the cutting edge of this sector should be able to make a major contribution to a greener, cleaner Britain.

Produced in November 2008.