2020 is getting closer and closer

Alarm bell from new Defra's report

Hi again!

Before starting out, I want to introduce this post with an apology: I realized that I haven't encouraged the discussion so far! Nothing dramatic, but obviously any comment, opinion and remark is more than welcome in RE-cycling!

Anyway, I was going to post the ending post of the "Digging the topic" series but, slightly late, I came across an important update about the recycling situation within the UK. I merely thought it was more appropriate to give fresh information rather then keep writing about definition and numbers.

On October 22nd, Adam Vaughan, the editor of environmentguardian.co.uk, published a piece of writing focused on the grade of recycled waste in England. Overlooking the debate between MPs the CEO stepped in, the article is mainly based on the recently released Defra's report "Waste Management in England".
It basically spins around the quantity of waste that has been recycled in recent years: even though the recycling rate had arose prominently between 2001 and 2007 (from 11% to 34%), it had then weakened (only 34% to 39% during the gap 2007 - 2010) and has ended up to an alarming stable value of 43% in the last years (table 1).

Table 1. Recycling rate (%) according to Defra's data (click to enlarge).

Why is this alarming? Well, here is the problem! Taking into account the "Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council", we must be able to achieve a recycling ratio of 50% no later than 2020. Article 11,2a (page 312/13):

"by 2020, the preparing for re-use and the recycling of waste materials such as at least paper, metal, plastic and glass from households and possibly from other origins as far as these waste streams are similar of waste from households, shall be increased to a minimum of overall 50 % by weight;"

Moral: we will never reach that ratio if we keep following the recent trend.

At this stage the consequent issues is: why has the recycling ratio stopped growing? Vaughan moves then across the possible causes that lead at this point, considering both the many different in-force recycling procedures in England (there are 400 of them out there!) and also the related government action, probably not strong enough anymore. Indeed, related to this aspect the MPs asserted that the Government has to lead a stronger promotion of recycling in order to redo the recycling rate rise again and match the EU target.

Thereafter, disclosing few information that I will broadly explore in future posts, Adam Vaughan touches upon two of the reasons why recycling is an important process. Following the guidelines outlined by the EU and the MPs, recycling is needed in order to:

1. reduce landfilling. Article 4,1 (L 312/10) of the Directive 2008/98 mentioned before says "the following waste hierarchy shall apply as a priority order in waste prevention and management legislation and policy: (a) prevention; (b) preparing for re-use; (c) recycling; (d) other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; and (e) disposal". Reducing disposal means reducing (also) landfilling, which thus represents the last option in terms of waste management (as we will see, landfilling causes emissions of methane and higher ground pollution hazards besides taking up huge areas of land).

2. waste as a energy resource. Quite meaningful is what the MP Anne McIntosh released discussing the Defra's report: "How are we going to get rid of our waste? How are we going to find alternative sources of energy? What would you prefer – unsightly fracking wells with thousands of lorries trundling around with waste water or would you prefer to take energy from waste, where you’re both disposing of the waste and you’re both fuelling and heating". It looks like that a lot of stuff has to be done. The challenge consists in bringing England where Wales already is: Cymru recycling rate is at 54%...they can wait 2020 chilling out. 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!