A Better Way to Recycle: co-operative and community ... - Urbed

1. Introduction1. IntroductionWaste management is fast becoming a keypolitical issue. The debate about waste spans theentire sustainability agenda. If we get it right, weprotect the environment, provide jobs andmaintain social harmony within all ourcommunities. If we get it wrong, we face highertax bills, create inequality and contribute todegraded environmental conditions.For centuries the UK has dropped its waste intolarge holes in the ground, called landfill sites.Landfill was convenient and relatively cheap. Butnow that option is fast disappearing. Europeanlaws are requiring more waste to be disposed ofin a different manner and we are at last wakingup to the hidden costs associated with landfill.Some European countries burn their wasteinstead of burying it, using large-scaleincinerators capable of generating energy fromwaste. While this solution is also practised in theUK, it accounts for a very small proportion ofwaste disposal. There is widespread oppositionto incinerator plants by local communities.Furthermore, incineration is not judged to be theBest Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO),defined as ‘the option that provides the mostbenefit and the least damage to the environmentas a whole, at acceptable cost, in the long term aswell as in the short term’ 1 .Another option is to export waste materials. Thispractice has emerged in response to rapidlygrowing economies that are hungry for rawmaterials and have relatively cheap labour costs.In 2004 over half of Britain’s waste paper, andmuch of its waste cans and plastic, were sold todeveloping countries such as China, which usethese materials in products that are oftenexported back to the source countries. But thereare problems here too. Recycling should takeplace close to where the waste arises in order tolimit transport distances and related carbonemissions. There are also questions about howsustainable these export markets really are,especially where their viability relies on poorerstandards of environmental health and safety.So, if we can’t bury our waste, burn it or exportit, then what are we to do with it? It is adilemma that will not wait for an answer butwill simply pile up outside our back doors untilwe figure it out.But while some think of waste as an intractableproblem, others see it as a golden opportunity.The key to this optimism lies in the way we lookat waste. If waste is treated as a raw material,the issue is not how to get rid of it, but how tobring it back into useful production. Economicconditions currently favour the use of firstgeneration or virgin raw materials over therecycling and re-use of secondary materials. Butcurrent conditions are changing fast. The cost ofoil, metals and minerals will increase over thecoming decades, and the cost of waste disposalwill spiral upwards. This, in tandem with tougherlaws on disposal, will produce large volumes ofwaste materials that need to be managed insome other way. These waste materials have thepotential to support a new and lucrativerecycling, re-use and recovery industry. Thosethat capitalise on the opportunities at an earlystage in the development of this sector are likelyto prosper in the future.The key question that needs to be addressed atthis crucial point in the history of wastemanagement is: What organisational forms aremost likely to succeed in the rapidly expandingrecycling market?The public sector is mindful of its duty to ensurebest value in the provision of public services,including waste collection and disposal; andincreasingly looks to outsource such activities.Furthermore, it is difficult for the public sectorto engage in activities beyond waste collectionand disposal, and it is in the processing of thesewaste materials where some of the bestopportunities lie.The private sector currently dominates thewaste industry. Most of the business relates tocontractual agreements to collect and transportwaste to a lawful place of disposal. There arealso a number of mainly small-scale businessesA Better Way to Recycle 7