Archived press release

New research finds out what's in the waste left after reuse, recycling and composting

15 October 2007

Friends of the Earth has today published a report which analyses what materials are likely to be in residual municipal waste after high levels of reuse, recycling and composting. The research [1], carried out by EnviroCentre Consultants, found that a large reduction in residual wastes could potentially be achieved by improving capture rates, and through addressing some specific high-tonnage waste streams.

The less residual waste we have, the less demand there is for facilities such as landfills, mechanical biological treatment plants or incinerators, to process it. Higher levels of reuse, recycling and composting will reduce our climate impacts and increase the efficiency with which we use resources. The second phase of research will now examine policy measures that could be taken in order to get these materials reused, recycled, composted - or prevented.

The research comes at a time when residual waste - that is the waste that is not reused, recycled or composted - is becoming an increasing priority for both local and national government. The Government's England Waste strategy, launched in May, set a national target for reducing residual waste, and the Government has since proposed that residual waste tonnage per capita should be a key indicator for monitoring the performance of local councils on waste [2].

Dr Michael Warhurst, senior waste and resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:

"This fascinating research shows us the both the challenge and the opportunity that we have ahead of us in taking the long- term direction of phasing out residual waste. It is clear that this is the right policy direction, both to minimise our climate impacts and to maximise our resource efficiency. We are looking forward to the results of the second phase to identify solid policy measures."

Dr Cathy Maguire, Principle Researcher with EnviroCentre, said:

"We look forward to talking to other stakeholders in order to identify the policy measures that could have real impact on significantly reducing residual waste. We are also recommending that the government improves its data gathering in this area, as we found that the data available is poor, and does not currently provide a robust basis for decision making and policy development, for example, to enable links to be made with product policy'."

The results were estimated based on two scenarios: one assumed that everything that could be recycled had already been (hypothetical scenario), the other assumed that some recyclables would still end up in residual waste, e.g. because of households not using the recycling system properly (practical scenario).

The most significant types of residual waste in the hypothetical scenario were found to be `other paper and card' [wallpaper, tissues etc], construction and demolition waste, furniture, disposable nappies and mixed bagged waste. Wastes in the practical scenario were similar, except the largest tonnage was kitchen waste. In the practical scenario, plastic packaging - which has the highest public profile - actually came in just outside the top 10 materials by weight [3].

For more information or an interview call Friends of the Earth's press office on 020 7566 1649

Notes

[1] The report is available online at
www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/residual_waste.pdf(PDF† )

It has been written by Robin Curry and Cathy Maguire at EnviroCentre in Belfast,
Tel: 028 9027 8330; www.envirocentre.co.uk/

[2] The England waste strategy sets a target to "to reduce the amount of household waste not re­used, recycled or composted from over 22.2 million tonnes in 2000 by 29% to 15.8 million tonnes in 2010 with an aspiration to reduce it to 12.2 million tonnes in 2020 - a reduction of 45%. This is equivalent to a fall of 50% per person (from 450 kg per person in 2000 to 225 kg in 2020)". See:
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/

The government has also proposed that local authorities will in the future have to report on the amount of "Household waste not re­used, recycled or composted per head". This indicator would assess both the success of waste reduction efforts and the levels of reuse, recycling and composting. See:
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localgovindicators/pdf/Indicators/Waste.pdf (PDF† )

[3] The sum of Plastic bottles, packaging film and other packaging plastic comes to 20,741 tonnes in the practical scenario, which would come just below the top 10 materials by tonnage in this scenario.

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust