Digging the topic - part 2

How much waste do we produce?

Once described the typology of waste that we produce (have a look at previous post if you have not done yet), I would like to take into account some data about the waste production to better frame the topic.

If we consider the waste production on a European scale first, the European Commission website shows that, in 2010, 2.5 billion tons of rubbish have been produced in the EU-27 area. Figure 1 shows all kind of waste generated but, for the aim of this blog, I will focus mainly on the light green sector of the pie chart: this is the 37% of the total, that is 927 million tons, something like 1847 kg for each inhabitant. Why is this the main data of the pie chart? Because the MSW is included within this sector. As we can see, the recyclable waste covers the 10% of the total amount, which corresponds to 255 million tons of materials.

Figure 1: European waste production in 2010 according to the European Commission web site.
Within the 37%, the recyclable percentage is pointed out: 10% of the total, 255 million tons of the total. (click to enlarge).

If you want to go more into detail about the quantitative aspect of the waste production, the Main Table links of the European Commission website show several interactive tables, graphs and maps that can give a wider understanding about all the types of waste generation, treatment and classification. Here I show the map of the European recyclable waste production: in 2012 the countries that produced the biggest amount of recyclable products have been United Kingdom, France and Germany while the eastern part of Europe shows the lowest ratios (note that this is not the quantity of waste that has been recycled, but it is just the production of potentially recyclable material).

Focusing on the UK situation, the Defra report mentioned in "Digging the topic - part 1" says that an average of 430 million tons of waste is produced every year in Great Britain. MSW is 7% of this total, corresponding to 29 million tons. Comparing the UK value with the European data, we can assess that Great Britain produces around 1/9 of the European recyclable waste.
Similar quantity can be found in the recent Defra report "UK statistic of Waste 2010 - 2012". In 2012, UK produced 26.4 million tons of recyclable waste. Going on an even smaller-scale, I only consider England now: the UK Government web site and the report included on it "The role of waste prevention in moving to a more resources efficient economy" assess that 177 million tons of waste have been produced in 2010. Contrasting this data with the values explained in the "UK statistic of Waste 2010 - 2012" report mentioned before, we can notice that, of a total of 177 million tons of waste production, 22.15 million tons are MSW produced by England alone. More clearly, MSW of England is about 1/8 of the total amount of waste produced.

In sum: I showed here some data regarding the amount of waste production. I started with a European overview, then zooming on UK and finally on England only: in 2010, Europe produced 2.5 billion tons of waste of which 255 are recyclable. In the same year, UK produced 29 million tons of recyclable materials. Of this, nearly all the amount was produced in England (22.15 million tons).

The question now is: how should we behave with all this quantity of rubbish? Where do we place it? "Digging the topic - part 3" will be dealing with these questions.

See you soon on RE-cycling!

Digging the topic - part 1

MSW: metal silicon and water or Municipal Solid Waste?

In the welcoming post, I tried to explain a few general concepts about what "recycling process" means, defining also "reuse" and "reduce" as two highly related and essential actions. Focusing on the waste, I basically pointed out that most of the rubbish that we produce has a second life.

At this stage of my blog, I would like to go more in depth about few more waste topics in order to have a more precise idea of the issue in terms of typology, quantity and treatment. Therefore, I divided the discussion in three parts. In "Digging the topic - part 1" I will address the waste classification, in "Digging the topic - part 2" I will briefly deal with the waste production while in "Digging the topic - part 3" I will analyse how the waste is treated once collected.

Listing the categories of waste is an essential starting point because it helps to create an overview of all the items that we constantly throw away. According to the UK Government website, the waste classification includes:
1. Construction and demolition waste (tiles, ceramics, bituminous mixtures, etc.);
2. Packaging waste and recycling;
3. Electronic and electrical equipment (batteries, televisions, laptops, tablets, furniture, WEEE, etc.);
4. Vehicle and oily wastes (consists of all the items related to ELV, “End of Live Vehicles”);
5. Healthcare waste (pharmacies, hospitals and clinic related waste);
A similar classification of waste is presented in the "Review of Environmental and Health: Effects of Waste Management" report (released by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affair - Defra) and it includes also agricultural waste as well as mine and quarry waste. Instead, the European Commission, suggests more distinct waste categories, including specific items such as POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutant), PVC or Sewage Sludge. Moreover, it splits the electronic devices in several different subcategories: batteries, WEEE (waste electrical electronic equipment), television, furniture and so on.
Nonetheless, the most evident and common element of all these classifications is represented by the Municipal Solide Waste (MSW), a term that includes sub-groups of waste like packaging or recyclables. It basically refers to all the waste coming from our houses, offices, schools and commercial activities (figure 1): plastic, paper, glass, textiles, shoes, food waste, cans etcetera. I will be using the acronym MSW quite often because most of the topics, processes and implication that I wish to talk about fall within this group. Moreover, the MSW is by far the type of waste that most commonly involves the humankind.

Figure 1: waste classification according to the "Review of Environmental and Health: Effects of Waste Management" report (Defra - 2004), modified. Main attention for the MSW, no quantity information are mentioned. (click to enlarge).

 

Last but not least, there is a different approach of waste classification which divides waste in two big categories: hazardous and non hazardous, depending if contains materials defined as "harmful to humans or the environment" (e.g. asbestos, solvents, chemicals, pesticides, etc.) or not. If we have, for instance, a plastic bottle contaminated with asbestos, it will be firstly considered as a hazardous waste rather then a simple MSW. However, this kind of waste classification needs a more careful consideration and I will discuss it properly in a future post.

Summarizing "Digging the topic - part 1", I described what kind of waste we produce by presenting the classification taken from the UK government (using both the website and Defra reports) and the typology offered by the European Commission. Among the main categories, I gave more attention to the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as it is a kind of waste that we most produce everyday: cardboard, paper, packaging, plastic, cans, etc.

I am going to post "Digging the topic - part 2" in the next days where I will give some data about how much waste we produce.

See you soon on RE-cycling!

Introducing recycling, introducing this blog

A brief welcoming post about all these green bins

Starting for now with a simple description, we can define the concept of recycling as a process that consists in three main steps: waste collection, waste sorting and production of new items. This set of actions can be applied to a wide range of recycling products. If we mention, for instance, paper, plastic or glass we probably all think about the garbage subdivision that we should do everyday at home and, therefore, we can easily infer what the process means. However, if we take into account also food wasting, we need to extend the concept to other directions that can be less straightforward compared to the general idea of recycling that most of us have in mind. Furthermore, when we include in the process other environmental components like water resources and several types of energy the concept of recycling assumes an even broader meaning and needs a more careful approach.
The word "recycling" is often linked to two other words, “reuse” and “reduce”, and the three terms together give a wider sense to all the implications involved in this issue. Reusing wasted food to produce energy or reducing our own water usage in order to prevent water scarcity or, more simply, reusing shopping bags rather than getting a new one every time are only three of a variety of actions that we mention that give a general idea of what we intend for the recycling-reusing-reducing concept. These three “re”-actions rarely can be separated from each other in this context. To demonstrate this connection, I report the idea of Adam Vaughan that "manufacturing new products from recycled material rather than new virgin material almost always results in lower CO2 emissions". In this particular example, it is shown how the “reducing” action could be interpreted in two ways: as a tool related to “reusing” action (i.e., use again shopping bags reduces the waste production) or as an improving consequence of “recycling” process.

Through "RE-cycling towards an eco friendly society" I wish to explore more in detail the three steps listed at the beginning of this post, focusing on the recycling and waste process and on potential benefits derived from it. Is this fundamental in our society? Do we have to care about it? What does the process involve? How long does it take? How much does it cost?

Beyond these questions, I wish to present few practical cases (as the recycling method within our university and how the recycling in London is regulated), I will write about recycling initiatives and about any other related story.

See you soon on RE-cycling!