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Recycling and the Environment Market Assessment 2000
Key Note Publications Ltd, Oct 2000
This report discusses recycling in relation to environmental matters, with particular reference to the new government strategy.
A review is given of the potential effects of polluting emissions on air, land and water. Atmospheric pollution can be caused by nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, halogens and particulate matter, to mention a few. Recycling can reduce the amount of these emissions. Similarly land and water pollution can produce damage to plant, animal and human life, and again, recycling can help reduce these effects.
It is important, however, that recycling is understood in the context of the waste hierarchy, in which options for disposing of a particular waste stream are considered in turn viz:
- waste reduction
- re-use
- recycling
- composting
- energy recovery (including incineration) from waste
- landscaping of waste
- landfill
- incineration without energy recovery.
A solution is sought by considering each option in turn, starting with waste reduction, and as a last resort, landfill or incineration without energy recovery.
Currently, some 40% of waste is recovered from the industrial and commercial sectors. Within this waste stream, there are some high recovery (mostly recycling) figures, e.g. metal and scrap equipment 89%, food 80%, paper and card 77%. Unfortunately, the recycling figures for the largest waste streams, general commercial and general industrial are much lower, 22% and 13% respectively.
The situation on the municipal front is poor, with 85% of the 27 million tonnes being sent to landfill and about 15% having value recovered through recycling, composting or energy from waste.
With a government target of 25% of municipal waste to be recycled or composted by 2005, the UK clearly has to work hard.
The report discusses Life Cycle Assessment as a way of estimating the environmental impact of a product from cradle to grave. After highlighting key legislation, the report gives an account of the present situation for major waste streams metals, plastics, end of life vehicles, etc., with details of statistics, specific legislation and future implications. An account is also given of companies involved in recycling the materials covered by the report.
Market Assessment commissioned market research to investigate consumer attitudes towards recycling. There were strong responses in favour of recycling and an understanding that landfill causes pollution. There was also a strong view that consumers would be more involved in recycling if they had kerbside collections using appropriate containers.
The report also gives details on new developing recycling technologies and gives examples of recycled products (where the final product is made from material recycled from products originally made for a different purpose).
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