Your Environmental Guide to Waste Reduction

Why reduce waste?

Why reduce waste?
Each year in the UK we generate about 100 million tonnes of waste from households, commerce and industry combined.  Even though initiatives are being introduced to reduce the amount of waste produced and increase the amount that is reused and recycled, a significant amount of waste still ends up being disposed of in landfill.

The UK government is now trying to incentivise households and businesses to apply the waste hierarchy  by raising awareness, providing alternative waste management solutions and enforcing larger penalties. Businesses are starting to realise the financial benefits associated with implementing an effective waste management strategy and its impact on the bottom line.

UK Government policy and targets
Following recent legislation such the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste, the UK government has devised a waste strategy with waste targets. This embraces the concept of the waste hierarchy, which prioritises waste management strategies, and places more emphasis on reduction of waste and less emphasis on the use of landfill. To support the delivery of waste targets the UK government has introduced a number of initiatives. A “Recycle on the Go” scheme has recently been established which aims to position more recycling bins in public places and provide information and good practice guides to help the appropriate use of these facilities. In line with this the government has also committed to investing in new recycling facilities and encouraging a variety of energy recovery technologies such as anaerobic digestion of waste. The government is also promoting the idea of producer responsibility and encourages voluntary action to be taken by private enterprises to reduce the environmental impacts of their products or services.

The relevance to business
Many companies are aware of the regulations that are starting to emerge in line with producer duty of care. For example, companies selling or manufacturing electrical goods are already required to dispose of the equipment at the end of life in a responsible way (link to directives timeline page). Additionally the Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations require those within the packaging supply chain to adhere to certain targets with respect to the disposal of packaging to landfill (link to directives timeline page). Perhaps the most far-reaching piece of legislation to impact industries and businesses is the landfill regulations that were recently introduced. As a result business waste has to be pre-treated to minimise the amount of materials sent to landfill sites, this and the high cost of disposal may now encourage businesses to review their strategy with respect to waste management.

What are businesses doing?
With the emergence of these new regulations, the increasing costs and the growing pressure for companies to act in a socially responsible way, many businesses are adopting a more proactive approach to waste reduction and management. Retailers and supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer and Sainsburys are working to reduce the amount of packaging used in their products and to encourage consumers to reuse their plastic bags by imposing a small charge for them.

Other businesses are also adopting waste management strategies within the office environment: making provision for recycling, and encouraging employees to reduce waste and use the services provided appropriately. Simple measures such as: encouraging the use of double-sided printing, scrap paper for note making and establishing a wormery or compost for the disposal of food waste, all go a long way to minimise the volume of waste to sent to landfill.

Many organisations have been established specifically to help businesses recycle or reuse their waste. For example old electrical equipment such as computers, mobile phones, toners and printer cartridges can be recycled through phone retailers and charities such as Oxfam. It is now also easy to recycle furniture by donating it to organisations such as the Furniture Reuse Network, which redistribute unwanted furniture and white goods to people who need them. Also, the Save a Cup  recycling company specialises in supporting businesses with recycling their waste polystyrene cups.

As people realise the opportunities associated with waste, more and more companies are being established whose sole purpose is to manage other people’s waste.

Developing a waste management strategy
Businesses should carry out waste management initiatives as part of a more formal overall waste strategy. A good first step is to conduct a waste audit. This helps to identify the company’s position with respect to the disposal of waste and the sourcing of resources, and provides a baseline from which improvements can be made. Following this, the development of specific waste objectives built from the principles of the waste hierarchy and the regular monitoring of these objectives will encourage continuous improvement in this area.

Many companies are now apportioning substantial resources into minimising waste and developing a waste management strategy. The drive for this has not simply grown from an environmental conscience; many have also realised the financial dividends that can be received from minimising waste and resource use. As of April 1st, 2008 the standard rate of landfill tax is £32 per tonne, up from £24 previously. 2007’s Budget announced annual increases in the standard rate of landfill tax of £8 per tonne from 2008/09 until at least 2010/11, by which time it will have reached £48 per tonne. This alone provides a large incentive for businesses to minimise waste, before even considering the cost savings that can be derived by reducing resource use.

The waste hierarchy represents a classification of waste management strategies in accordance to their desirability: reduce, reuse, recycle, energy recovery and disposal. With reducing waste representing the most preferable option and disposal representing the least.

i) Defra website
ii) http://www.save-a-cup.co.uk/index.asp

1 The waste hierarchy represents a classification of waste management strategies in accordance to their desirability: reduce, reuse, recycle, energy recovery and disposal. With reducing waste representing the most preferable option and disposal representing the least.

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