Waste Prevention & Minimisation

2013-06-14T11:06:00.003+01:00

UK: Tesco's war on food waste

2013-05-23T12:51:00.000+01:00

Dr Richard Swannell, director of Wrap, welcomed Tesco's pledge.

"We will work with them to [tackle food waste] through the Courtauld Commitment and Love Food Hate Waste. Food waste is a global issue, both in what is wasted and securing resource for future demand," he said.

"Supermarkets and big brands are uniquely placed to help reduce food waste across the whole food cycle from manufacturing and sales through to assisting consumers to make the most of the food they've bought."

From The Telegraph

France: The straw bale urinal that makes compost from 'liquid gold'

2013-05-20T13:36:00.001+01:00

French design studio Faltazi has developed a plug-in funnel to upcycle urine and bring an eco message to summer festivals. "Are you used to going for a number one in the back of your garden?" asks French design studio Faltazi. "Do not waste this valuable golden fluid by sprinkling on inappropriate surfaces!"

Their solution to the problem of peeing al fresco is l'Uritonnoir, a hybrid of a urinal ("urinoir" in French) and a funnel ("entonnoir") that plugs into a straw bale to make your very own urine upcycling factory.

As the bale is filled with your "liquid gold", the nitrogen in the urine reacts with the carbon in the straw to begin the process of decomposition - forming a rich mound of composted humus within 6-12 months.

L'Uritonnoir was originally dreamt up with summer festivals in mind, where straw bales are often in frequent supply, but portaloos are not. The device comes as a flat polypropylene sheet, which is folded into shape and slotted together, then threaded on a looping band around the bale, its funnel wedged deep into the centre of the straw to channel the fluid to the composting core. A deluxe version is also available in stainless steel - presumably for the VIP bale urinal area.

From The Guardian

London; Community goods exchange event

2013-05-14T15:10:00.000+01:00

Europe - EU slammed over waste prevention commitment

2013-02-20T12:48:00.001+00:00

The European Commission has been criticised for failing to implement higher targets and new policy measures to encourage the reuse of materials and reduction of wasteful consumption.

In a report released by Friends of the Earth, the NGO claims the Commission is contradicting its recycling targets by pursuing a trade liberalisation approach, seeking greater access to developing countries' resource markets. In addition, FOE said the Commission's 2011 Roadmap to a Resource-Efficient Europe lacks robust and reliable solutions focused on reducing consumption, and that the cultivation of biomass was counterintuitive. Entitled Less is more: Resource efficiency through waste collection, recycling and reuse, the report states that the roadmap focuses on 'natural capital', arguing that ecosystem services give natural resources an economic value that will protect them from depletion and pollution.

However, FOE is concerned that this economic approach is no substitute for real regulations shaping and guiding the use and disposal of resources, and resource-friendly manufacturing processes. In contrast to the resource-efficient European approach, FOE argue that the EU's promotion of 'bio-economies' risks more land grabs, forest degradation and emissions from deforestation, as crops and timber are increasingly imported to meet growing feed, fuel and fibre demands. The report specifically looks at the environmental impacts of the extraction, use and disposal of three commodities widely used in Europe: lithium, aluminium and cotton. The extraction of lithium in Chile, for example, is contributing to water shortages and pollution, leaving local communities struggling to grow food, as well as damaging the local flora and fauna. FOE predicts that the demand for lithium is destined to soar with the development of electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. It therefore says that major investment in collection and recycling infrastructure and technologies, combined with effective regulation are crucial to cut down on mining. FOE resource use campaigner Ariadna Rodrigo argued that in order to move to a zero waste Europe, higher recycling targets need to be accompanied by targets for waste prevention.

"There is an urgent need to fundamentally change EU policies and end our current wastefulness. Reducing waste is an easy way to increase Europe's resource efficiency. It not only contributes to cutting carbon emissions, it also creates jobs in Europe and reduces dependency on imported raw materials," she said.

From Edie.net

London: UK's 1st building to be made entirely from waste

2013-02-13T14:53:00.000+00:00

London - Give or Take

2013-01-31T11:57:00.000+00:00

Europe - Call for wasteful goods to be 'taken off market'

2012-12-20T12:40:00.000+00:00

The EC is calling for a ban on resource-inefficient consumer products across Europe to stimulate markets for goods and services that have lower lifecycle impacts, creating demand for products that are more durable and easy to recycle. One way to achieve this would be by progressively taking the worst performing products off the market and providing incentives to consumers to adopt more sustainable lifestyles through their purchasing decisions. The European Commission also wants to encourage more sustainable sourcing of raw materials, and argues the case for more private and public investment in resource-efficient technologies and skills, and suggests that SMEs will be important due to the ability to respond swiftly to market demands.

From Edie.net

UK- £50,000 For Reuse And Repair Initiatives

2012-12-20T12:36:00.000+00:00

WRAP has launched a second round of its capital grant competition to increase the reuse and repair of textiles, furniture, and WEEE, with grants of up to £50,000 available. WRAP is currently in contract negotiations with 11 organisations from the first round of funding, which have the potential to deliver 18,000 tonnes of carbon savings, and create 58 full-time jobs, 21 volunteer placements, 16 apprenticeships, and 4 training places. Eligible expenditure can include:

- Equipment needed for collections and sorting;

- Equipment needed for equipment and testing;

- Cleaning, repair, and remanufacture equipment;
- Storage and stock management systems;
- Packaging systems for repaired and reusable products;
- Alterations to workshop or retail premises.

SMEs (including social enterprises) and local authorities can apply for the funding if they satisfy a number of selection criteria including value for money of their application against the amount of money requested; strength of the business case; financial and operational robustness of the proposal; and market demand of the products delivered by the project. The deadline for applications is the 10th January 2013. More from Edie.net

UK - A London borough, Hackney, recycles on the go (litter)

2012-12-17T10:43:00.000+00:00

From Hackney Recycle on the Go link

DoItYourself: How to make gift bags from envelopes

2012-12-17T10:35:00.002+00:00

From RecycleNow, more videos here

London: Air pollution awareness

2012-10-26T13:30:00.002+01:00

'Breathe' by Dryden Goodwin - Video documentation from Dryden Goodwin on Vimeo.

UK: Hackney offering £54 towards Real Nappies

2012-10-23T15:52:00.002+01:00

Ireland: How to tackle litter the proper way

2012-10-09T16:36:00.002+01:00

From South Dublin County Council

Italy: The first Big Hanna composter in Italy

2012-09-14T16:15:00.000+01:00

The installation of our model T120_40L was completed during November 2011 in Villa San Giovanni in Tuscia, a small community of 1400 inhabitants located 80 km north of Rome. The organic waste is collected exclusively from the home collection service held in the city.

Organic waste from households is delivered by citizens to the collection service inside mater-bi "OK compost home" certified bags. The organic waste is collected 3 times a week and processed with the Big Hanna Composter.

The compost is picked up by the citizens themselves to be used in their gardens as fertiliser. The organic material is collected and treated on site rather than facing long and expensive transfer to a large composting facility, with cost savings and CO2 abatement.

This is the first Italian experience with Big Hanna and the first experience ever of an entire community that gives all its organic waste to the collection service to be treated on site. In Italy this represents an important innovation, which arouses the interest of many small city halls aimed to the same disposal system.

Story from: http://bighanna.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-first-big-hanna-composter-in-italy.html

UK: Huge reuse potential’ in bulky waste

2012-08-17T15:38:00.002+01:00

More than half of all bulky waste items taken to household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) could be re-used, according to a new report published by WRAP today (August 16). The new report also claims that 40% of bulky items collected at the kerbside, such as sofas and televisions, could be re-used. Of bulky items taken to an HWRC, 32% were estimated to be re-usable in their current condition, increasing to 51% if items requiring slight repair (but in otherwise good condition) were taken into account.

For items collected at kerbside, 24% were estimated to be re-usable in their current condition, rising to 40% if items requiring slight repair were taken into account.

‘Composition and re-usability of bulky waste in the UK’– is the first UK-wide piece of research to look at the composition of bulky waste in the UK, in order to assess the potential for re-use. It follows a report WRAP published last year on the environmental and economic benefits of re-use.

National estimates derived from WasteDataFlow, the online database for UK municipal waste reporting, suggest that across the UK during 2010/11, some 1.6 million tonnes of bulky waste was collected at the kerbside or taken to HWRCs. Approximately twice as much is taken to HWRCs (1 million tonnes) than is collected at the kerbside (540,000 tonnes).

Using the above data and extrapolating the sample findings across all UK kerbside and HWRC bulky waste collections, the report suggests that of all bulky waste in the UK, (including both kerbside collected and HWRC bulky items), around 42% consists of furniture, 19% textiles and 19% WEEE. These estimates equate to 670,000 tonnes of furniture and 310,000 tonnes each of textiles and WEEE disposed of by householders in the UK annually.

Mervyn Jones, head of products and materials at WRAP, said: “There is a perception that many bulky items taken to household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) or collected at kerbside are not re-usable. However, this research shows that there is significant re-use potential to be realised from these items.

“This research will help local authorities and HWRC operators to remove these items from the waste stream, either for re-sale or for passing on to the third sector.”

Link to report here

UK: Reducing food waste when eating out

2012-08-07T10:44:00.001+01:00

Love Food Hate Waste campaign has lots of tips and advice to help everyone reduce the amount of food we throw away at home, and now they are looking at ways to cut food waste when we eat out too. Watch our short video to find out what people say about the food they waste when eating out:

Leading hospitality and food service companies are playing their part and have signed up to a new agreement. WRAP is working with them to reduce food and packaging waste and increase recycling rates. The voluntary agreement aims to cut food and associated packaging waste by 5% (a CO2e reduction of 234,000 tonnes), the equivalent of about 100 million meals.

As part of this work, they are developing ideas for how we can all waste less food when we eat out – lots more information will follow over the next few months.

World: Alarming rise in amount and costs of waste

2012-08-07T10:28:00.002+01:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

A new World Bank study projects a 70% global increase in urban solid waste – with developing countries facing the greatest challenges.

Developing country cities, already coping with burgeoning populations, scarce financial resources, and limited capacity to manage environmental issues, are facing a sharp rise in the amount and costs of garbage that they will be required to deal with by 2025. A new report from the World Bank’s Urban Development department estimates the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) will rise from the current 1.3 billion tonnes per year to 2.2 billion tonnes per year by 2025. Much of the increase will come in rapidly growing cities in developing countries.

The report, What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management, for the first time offers consolidated data on MSW generation, collection, composition, and disposal by country and by region.The report notes that municipal solid waste management is the most important service a city provides. In low-income countries, MSW is often the largest single budget item for cities, and one of the largest employers. A city that cannot effectively manage its waste is rarely able to manage more complex services such as health, education, or transportation.

The report says that a number of practical approaches could be applied in most cities, including:

Public education to inform people about their options to reduce waste generation and increase recycling and composting;
Pricing mechanisms (such as product charges) to stimulate consumer behavior to reduce waste generation and increase recycling;
User charges tied to the quantity of waste disposed of, with (for example) consumers separating recyclables paying a lower fee for waste disposal; and/or
Preferential procurement policies and pricing to stimulate demand for products made with recycled post-consumer waste.

UK, London: Waste reduction possible with shops like these

2012-06-22T12:33:00.000+01:00

Check out the fantastic video created by North London Waste Authority in Hackney.

For more videos visit this page: http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/waste-resources/businesses

UK: Recycle Week 18 -24 June, Plastic Bottle Recycling!

2012-06-19T10:26:00.001+01:00

World: We are screwed if we dont reduce consumption (people)

2012-06-14T14:15:00.000+01:00

More than 100 science academies around the world have called on world leaders to take action on population and consumption at the Rio+20 summit.

They say past failures on these issues threaten the natural world and prospects for future generations. Experts in both developed and developing countries have joined forces on what used to be a divisive topic." The overall message is that we need a renewed focus on both population and consumption - it's not enough to look at one or the other," said Prof Charles Godray. "We need to look at both, because together they determine the footprint on the world."

The footprint is getting heavier and heavier, the academies warn. "The global population is currently around seven billion, and most projections suggest that it will probably lie between eight and 11 billion by 2050," their declaration says. "Global consumption levels are at an all time high, largely because of the high per-capita consumption of developed countries." If the billion poorest people are to have adequate access to food, water and energy, the academies say, developed countries will have to reduce their own consumption of natural resources. They say this can be done without reducing prosperity so long as different economic models are followed.

Failing to make these changes "will put us on track to alternative futures with severe and potentially catastrophic implications for human well-being".

The declaration builds on a recent report from the Royal Society. The topics of population and consumption are both mentioned in the draft agreement that negotiators are discussing in Rio. But both crop up in a far weaker form than many observers would like. The new report is an indication of how things have changed on the population question. In decades gone by, developing nations tended to see the issue as a ploy by rich countries to avoid talking about unsustainable consumption.

The African Institute for Development Policy in Nairobi who worked on the recent Royal Society report, said perceptions were changing. "Many African countries are feeling the effects of population growth, and are finding they'll need to deal with it in order to continue developing as well as to address their environmental issues," he told BBC News.

Dr Zulu also said that evidence accumulated over the last decade showed that overall, African women were having more children than they wanted - which gave politicians an incentive to increase family planning provision. In the formal negotiations, government delegates convened on Wednesday for intensive talks aimed at securing consensus on key themes.

Photo from smh.com.au

News from BBC News

Global: Waste challenge as big as climate change

2012-06-08T13:30:00.002+01:00

Annual global waste is set to rise from 1.3 billion tonnes to 2.2bn tonnes by 2025, posing challenges on a scale with climate change, according to a new report. The World Bank predicts a big rise in global municipal solid waste from the current 1.2kg per person per day to 1.4kg in 2025.

The report, What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management, estimates the annual cost of solid waste management will rise from $205bn (£132bn) today to $375bn (£243bn). Rachel Kyte, vice president of sustainable development at the World Bank, said waste management was becoming in more urgent issue, especially in rapidly developing cities in low income countries.

She said: “The findings of this report are sobering, but they also offer hope that once the extent of this issue is recognized, local and national leaders, as well as the international community, will mobilize to put in place programs to reduce, reuse, recycle, or recover as much waste as possible before burning it (and recovering the energy) or otherwise disposing of it. Measuring the extent of the problem is a critical first step to resolving it.”

The report sets out several policy recommendations including:

Public education to inform people about their options to reduce waste generation and increase recycling and composting
Pricing mechanisms (such as product charges) to stimulate consumer behaviour to reduce waste generation and increase recycling
User charges tied to the quantity of waste disposed of, with (for example) consumers separating recyclables paying a lower fee for waste disposa
Preferential procurement policies and pricing to stimulate demand for products made with recycled post-consumer waste
Dan Hoornweg, lead urban specialist in the finance, economics, and urban development department of the World Bank and co-author of the report said that while the report’s findings were not surprising it reinforced a “relatively silent problem that is growing daily”

“The challenges surrounding municipal solid waste are going to be enormous, on a scale of, if not greater than, the challenges we are currently experiencing with climate change. This report should be seen as a giant wake-up call to policy makers everywhere,” he said.

Story from http://www.mrw.co.uk/

Hackney: Give or Take June 2012

2012-06-08T13:07:00.001+01:00

Hackney Council's Give or Take Days are a great way of getting rid of items that you don't need, and taking items you do. Simply turn up on the day with items that you want to give, or come along and take what you need. You don't have to give something to take something!

The next give or take day is Saturday 16 June, 11am to 3pm at Grazebrook Primary School, Lordship Road, N16 0QP. Find out more about Give or take days

is the green consumer here or long gone?

2012-03-09T12:40:00.001+00:00

Shoppers want packaging that keeps food fresh longer, thus producing less food waste. They also want to put less packaging into landfill, according to the latest consumer research. The Bord Bia view is based upon a recent Mintel UK consumer survey entitled 'Food & Drink Packaging Trends', which shows that eco-friendly packaging has grown in importance in parallel with convenience trends such as 'easy-open' and 'smart' packaging.

Bord Bia Food & Beverage sector manager, Stephanie Moe, notes: "Food and packaging manufacturers continue to work together to introduce more environmentally-friendly packaging formats. "A wide range of products from coffee to milk are now sold in light pouches or bags, with even minced beef now being sold similarly.

"As well as the environmental benefit, these packaging developments offer savings in transport and storage costs offered by more lightweight packaging formats," Ms Moe said. The Mintel report highlighted some of the main drivers and trends impacting on food packaging in Britain. Partly driven by rising waste disposal costs, consumers in Britain are increasingly conscious of their food waste.

As a result, people are shifting their priorities when it comes to food packaging, with a strong focus on seeking packaging options that help to keep products fresher for longer, thereby minimising food waste.

In an effort to tackle food waste, consumers are seeking products of a size more appropriate to their needs, looking for variety of pack formats so they no longer have to throw out what they do not use. Another packaging trend of note is 'easy-open'. With the over-55s forecast to represent 30% of the population by 2016, packaging is starting to target this demographic, again with more suitable, generally smaller pack formats and the availability of easy-to-open jars, bottles and tubs for food.

Also increasing in popularity is the 'clear packaging' category. There is considerable evidence that consumers prefer clear packaging, with the ability to see the product clearly offering a reassurance of the product quality and allaying fears that a product may have superfluous packaging.

Consumers are also seeking out 'smart' packaging, which refers to new packaging features that go beyond changes in pack shape, colour, barcodes etc. This comprises 'active' and 'intelligent' packaging.

Ms Moe says: "Advancements in active and intelligent packaging are numerous but their penetration remains limited due to their high costs and technical issues often involved in incorporating them into the production process. Examples of this would be the use of thermo-chrome inks, used in the drinks industry to show when a product is at the correct temperature for consumption ( for example Coors beer bottles).

News from: http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/from-the-wires/wire-news-display/1616084297.html

UK - Reuse 'way forward' as resource security fears grow

2011-12-14T10:47:00.005+00:00

Goodwin said that by pursuing opportunities for reuse, the UK could reduce its reliance on raw materials, including rare earths, by as much as 20% by 2020. WRAP estimates that around 600m tonnes of products and material enter the UK economy each year, with only around 115m tonnes being recycled. "Rare earth metals account for just 1,600 tonnes of this flow, but they are found everywhere - from vehicles, TVs, computers and ceramics, fuels, energy generation, and pharmaceuticals," Goodwin told delegates. "We are heavily dependent on these materials for so many everyday items, but recycling rates associated with these resources are generally very low, often below 1%."

WRAP has identified some 'quick win' resource efficiency strategies, covering a range of materials including copper, lithium and cobalt as well as rare earths, which could not only help reduce the UK's carbon footprint by 2020, but could also help address wider supply security issues.

Goodwin said: "Our research shows that in general, it's the strategies that extend the life of goods or reduce the consumption of electronic and electrical goods that have the greatest impact.

"The biggest 'quick win' impacts can be attribute to four approaches - lean production, waste reduction, lifetime optimisation and 'goods to services', where the number of leased products is increased and the number of outright purchases are decreased."

Goodwin also highlighted the opportunities presented by tackling the amount of WEEE in the UK. "We estimate that between now and 2020, in the UK, we'll dispose of 12m tonnes of WEEE.

She alluded to new WRAP research that shows that almost a quarter of all WEEE taken to household recycling centres has a reuse value, which could deliver £200m gross revenue each year. "This alone could make 100 tonnes of rare earth elements - almost 10% of UK demand - available again," she said.

"More than a fifth of the WEEE could be immediately sold on, or repaired and refurbished for resale, bringing financial benefits to those involved. The end result would be that we'd be a step closer to the elusive closed loop, green economy model."

Read WRAP's sheet on "Realising the Reuse Value of Household WEEE"

From Edie