Zero Waste by Robin Murray, Greenpeace Environmental Trust 2002

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A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s This book is dedicated to those who helped make it: to Keith Collins and Alan Watson whose work and perspectives I hope are adequately reflected here; to Bob Argue, Enzo Favoino, Kathy Killinger, Worku Lakew, Jack McGinnis, Cheryl Nash and Marco Ricci; and to the members of the CRN and Zero Waste UK who, with direct experience of the old waste order, have been so central to the shaping of the new one. I would also like to thank Zero Waste New Zealand, the members of Zero Waste International and Greenpeacee for their support. London, February 2002 February 2002 Published by Greenpeace Environmental Trust Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN, United Kingdom Registered Charity No. 284934 © Greenpeace Environmental Trust 2002 A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1 903907 01 2 Design by Paul Hamilton at One Another Printed in the United Kingdom by Russell Press Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper Front cover image © Barbara Morss Back cover image © David Hoffman
F o r e w o r d Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace Executive Director The issue of waste has become a political hot potato. Central government wants ‘sustainable waste management’ but passes the buck to local authorities. Local authorities decry the lack of funds from central government to enable anything but the cheapest option and reproach householders for failing to participate in reduction and recycling schemes. And the public opposes waste disposal facilities – both incinerators and landfill – with a vehemence they normally reserve for nuclear waste dumps. A new awareness that our society faces a waste crisis has moved waste management from a marginal issue to one at the centre of political debate. Some are stricken with panic at the prospect of overhauling the waste system, but at the same time a new, more positive attitude is emerging. There is now a far greater willingness to see waste as an opportunity and to see the solutions as part of a wider agenda stretching from climate change through resource management to urban regeneration. As Robin Murray eloquently explains in this book, ‘from the perspective of pollution, the problem is a question of what waste is. From the perspective of resource productivity, it is a question of what waste could be. As a pollutant, waste demands controls. As an embodiment of accumulated energy and materials it invites an alternative. The one is a constraint to an old way of doing things. The other opens up a path to the new.’ What is emerging is a polarisation of approaches to waste. One clings desperately to the old way of doing things, the other embraces the new and drives further change. This book details the failings of the old, business-as-usual option, that has been dressed up in the new clothes of ‘integrated waste management’. It then outlines a new approach, a Zero Waste policy, that promises to transform Zero Waste 1
Page 1: As a pollutant, waste demands contr
Page 5 and 6: outlines the political, financial a
Page 7 and 8: F rom the perspective of pollution,
Page 9 and 10: disposal. The issue of toxicity is
Page 11 and 12: primary forests … Humankind has i
Page 13 and 14: I I Zero Waste Fair and foul At one
Page 15 and 16: phasing out the production of the s
Page 17 and 18: innovative Zero Waste thinkers, Mic
Page 19 and 20: the technical circuit of inorganic
Page 21 and 22: But here, too, the advance has been
Page 23 and 24: m a c h i n e ry of mass production
Page 25 and 26: Inset 1 Vertical compost unit mater
Page 27 and 28: Recycling as market economy If the
Page 29 and 30: IV The Road to Zero Waste 1. Settin
Page 31 and 32: After that the household rate is pu
Page 33 and 34: Europe by no means all landfills ha
Page 35 and 36: • support groups. Many recycling
Page 37 and 38: past have tried to limit these imba
Page 39 and 40: are targeted. In economic terms, re
Page 41 and 42: V The Green Materials Revolution Th
Page 43 and 44: municipal sector. The eco-efficienc
Page 45 and 46: The commodity-service economy One o
Page 47 and 48: Designing for cycles The trends ide
Page 49 and 50: parallel to increasingly far reachi
Page 51 and 52: Canada, the USA and Australia. New
Page 53 and 54:
V I I Re-orienting UK waste The pol
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Germany. 65 Only 8% of household or
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where returns are high, while remai
Page 59 and 60:
The important point to note is that
Page 61 and 62:
• minimising costs, not advancing
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VIII The integrated option As a res
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The attraction of these arrangement
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These inquiries are defensive. They
Page 69 and 70:
Climate change and Significance pla
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• the exemption from business rat
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C o n c e rned over the widening co
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• the introduction of measures to
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3. The recycling of bulky waste •
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• introduce a ban on untreated mu
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Inset 4 Halifax, Nova Scotia In the
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2. Restructuring incentives There w
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make recycling and composting finan
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conversion scheme from their share
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of operation and monitoring of prac
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a subsidiary of an existing waste c
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X Beyond Recycling I have argued th
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This has been effective when pollut
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Inset 5 Producer Responsibility and
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challenge comes when the cause of t
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auditing bodies, and by schemes suc
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186 of regional sub-centres. Local
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Beyond the waste ghetto Zero Waste
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testing. Never has waste been so cl
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• Central government intervenes i
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workshop, May 1998, Berlin. 15 USEP
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strong, and that increasing numbers
Page 115 and 116:
supportive of the ‘integrated opt
Page 117 and 118:
Press, 2000. The book also outlines
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Zero Waste by Robin Murray, Greenpeace Environmental Trust 2002

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