Waste not want not - States Assembly

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
Figure 14: Four Investment Measures to Reduce Waste
Measure Aims Rationale Estimated Cost Benefit/impact
1. Extension of home
composting
A three year programme to
help households start home
composting and to improve
composting rates for those
who already participate.
Led by WRAP through a
programme of roll-out of
composting bins and high
quality, practical advice
directly to individual
households. Based on the
successful Master Composter
model from the US and
Canada.
● To raise householder
participation in home
composting by 10% in
urban areas and 15% in
rural areas;
● specific target areas
would be selected after
research. The emphasis
will be on rural areas
where a realistic target
would be 120
kg/household a year
diverted. In urban areas
a realistic target is
90kg/household a year
diverted; 119
● aim is to reduce
arisings by a total of
400,000 tonnes over
three years;
● in each of the following
years the aim is to
reduce arisings by
300,000 tonnes per
annum.
● Home composting
carried out to high
standards is an effective
way of reducing the
organic component of
waste arisings.
● There have been
successful schemes in
Austria, Italy and
Belgium as well as in
Canada and the US.
● Around a third of
households in England
have participated in
some form of
composting activity in
the last 12 months. 120
Local authorities are
estimated to have
rolled out 1.5 million
composting bins since
1995/6. 121 However,
the lack of sustained
support for householders
is a major factor in the
relative lack of
demonstrable success
of current home
composting activities.
Based on an average oneoff
bin cost of £20 per
household (assuming
major economies of scale
from large orders) and an
average support package
of £10 per household a
year, the programme costs
are £30 million over three
years.
● An overall diversion of
300,000 tonnes could
be achieved from the
third year of the
programme onwards.
This is based on raising
participation by an
additional 10% in
urban areas and 15% in
rural areas assuming
waste reduction/
diversion from the
household stream of
90kg-120kg per
household a year.
● Based on average waste
management costs of
£45/t, 122 the reduction
would save £13.5
million in waste
management costs per
year. The programme
breaks even by
2006/07.
119
Parfitt J. (2002), Home Composting – from participation to diversion? Paper presented at Home Composting Conference 2002, Imperial College, London. This shows a range of estimated home
composting diversion rates from 50-250kg/household per year, not all of this material would otherwise have become part of the household waste stream. See also Wheeler P. & Parfitt J. (2002),
Lifecycle assessment for home composting. Paper presented to Waste 2002 Conference. Recent analysis of home composting diversion field trials showing average 5.25kg/household per week.
120
Onyx/NOP (2000) Public attitudes towards waste
121
DoE/DETR/DEFRA
122
SU analysis. Estimated average unit waste management cost per tonne, net of landfill tax, 2003/4 – 2005/6.
84