GARWER WasteXchange News

Zero waste in Buenos Aires (Argentina) Posted: 27 Jun 2008 07:50 AM CDT In late 2005, the City Council in Buenos Aires, Argentina unanimously passed a law, "Integral Management Of Solid Urban Waste," a Zero Waste law. The law sets goals and milestones to reduce the volume of municipal solid waste going to landfill disposal. "The first milestone is 30 percent reduction of waste to landfill by 2010," says Cecilia Allen of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives' (GAIA) Latin America office in Buenos Aires. "That is followed by a 50 percent reduction by 2012, and a 75 percent reduction by 2017. The law bans landfilling of recyclable and compostable waste by 2020." The baseline used in the law is the tons of solid waste disposed in 2004 (1.5 million metric tons). Impending closure of two of the three landfills servicing the city and surrounding region helped build political support for the Zero Waste law. CEAMSE (Coordinación Ecológica Area Metropolitana Sociedad del Estado), a joint venture of the government of the Province of Buenos Aires and the government of the City of Buenos Aires, has been managing urban waste in the Greater Buenos Aires region for almost 30 years. It owns the landfills, which receive up to 5,000 metric tons/day of municipal solid waste from the city alone. Garbage collection in Buenos Aires is mostly privatized, with five of the six districts serviced by contractors to the city. Buenos Aires city government services the sixth. Culture Of Cartoneros Against the backdrop of "institutionalized" waste collection is an infrastructure of cartoneros, or waste pickers. The number of cartoneros grew significantly during the economic crisis that Argentina went through in 2001, but has since shrunk to an estimated 10,000 people. Entire families can be seen picking through the garbage set out at the curb. Primary materials recovered are cardboard and paper, as well as metals. Many use large canvas "sacks" mounted on wheels to hold the recovered materials. Stores owners typically keep cardboard and paper separated for the cartoneros, who have their certain territories within the various neighborhoods of the city. Many cartoneros, who live in the outskirts of the city, arrive on special trains designed to carry their carts. (One on-line blog noted that these trains were being shut down, making it more difficult for the cartoneros.) It is estimated that the cartoneros recover about 13 percent of the garbage generated in Buenos Aires. They typically sell their materials to a broker, who in turn sells to processors of recycled feedstocks. While many cartoneros operate independently, there are about 10 cooperatives in the city of Buenos Aires. "The strategy to implement the Zero Waste law includes working with the cooperatives, having them operate the Resource Recovery Centers to be built," explains Allen. "It also provides funds for them to acquire capital goods. The law recognized that the cartoneros were here before this policy was adopted, and these are the people who know about the waste and how to recycle it." The city government built the first Resource Recovery Center, purchased the machinery, and loaned the installation to the cooperative selected to operate the plant under a five-year agreement. The facility, the Bajo Flores Ecological Cooperative of Recyclers, opened on May 1st. An article in the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency reports that there are 30 cartoneros working in the plant, processing 10 metric tons of materials a day. The goal is to expand to 90 workers, and process 120 metric tons/day. "For now, we are practicing with small quantities to learn how to classify, but we will later have to learn to handle larger volumes and how to register purchases, sales and payments," said Francisco Monzon, president of the Bajo cooperative, in the IPS article. Monzon's cooperative was formed in 2002 in order to obtain better prices for the materials. According to the cartoneros, one problem they are facing is that a fair amount of recyclables never make it to the plants. That's why they have proposed that the government start a program to monitor the private waste haulers. The private companies providing waste collection in the five districts are required to build the remaining recycling centers as part of their service agreements with the city. Those will be owned by the city government, but operated by the cooperatives. Revenues from sale of recyclables go to the cartoneros. Two of the five are being built, although there are significant delays. GAIA, together with Greenpeace, other environmental NGOs and cartoneros cooperatives, has been taking an active part in an advisory committee created by the law, proposing ideas to better implement the Zero Waste strategy. These include improving the communication campaigns, collection of yard trimmings, working with big waste producers, etc. They have also been pressing the government to speed construction of the resource recovery centers, as well as talking to neighbors who oppose these sites fearing that they are garbage disposal sites. Greenpeace has conducted a media campaign with TV spots asking people to call on the government to implement the Zero Waste law. Last year, GAIA, Greenpeace and the national Citizens Anti-Incinerator Coalition stopped attempts by the city government to start incinerating solid waste, something the law bans until significant diversion (75 percent) has occurred. "The law is not being implemented as we had hoped, and the new government administration is showing dangerous attempts to cut citizens' participation and go back ages by incinerating municipal waste," says Allen. "But we see that more and more organizations and institutions are calling on the government to implement the Zero Waste law. We hope that this critical mass will make the administration stay on the right path." Organics Diversion Initiatives A small yard trimmings composting site is operating at the CEAMSE landfill (the one that will remain open). It receives landscaping material from some of the gated communities in the Buenos Aires region, and from the city's parks and separate trimmings collection system. GAIA recently hired a person to research opportunities for organics diversion, primarily from households and businesses in neighborhoods of the city. "Even though almost half of our waste is organic, the strategy to implement the law focuses on dry recyclable materials, so we're aiming at starting small-scale composting systems within the city to show the importance and the feasibility of diverting organics from landfills," says Allen. The city is rolling out a two-bin collection system for households - a dry bin for recyclables and a wet bin for nonrecyclables and compostables. The dry bin materials will go to the Resource Recovery Centers. "The law talks about first separating dry and wet, then improving separation of the dry stream," she adds. "The third step will focus on separating organics. The rationale for starting with the dry stream is that there is a market for these materials and this is what the waste pickers focus on." The 2005 Zero Waste law also includes Extended Producer Responsibility provisions. This eventually can require producers and importers to modify the way their products are packaged or designed, and to implement return/takeback programs. [i]By Nora Goldstein[/i]

New research into recycling household plastics to be launched in Scotland Posted: 27 Jun 2008 07:44 AM CDT New research from WRAP has found that recycling not just plastic bottles but other plastic packaging as well can be cost-effective and environmentally friendly. WRAP has just launched its first business plan for Scotland and, in this, proposes to review the outcomes of its mixed plastics research against Scotland's circumstances. Delivery of the Scotland Business Plan will be led by WRAP's new Director for Scotland, Iain Gulland, who will start work on 23 June. Scotland produces around 250,000 tonnes of mixed plastic packaging waste every year. The total for the UK is 1m and this figure is growing by 2-5% every year. It makes up around 7- 9% of household weight by waste and its volume means it stands out in the average person's bin. WRAP did the research to see if it made financial sense to recycle this waste and if recycling it would be better for the environment than other options – such as burning it or sending it to landfill. In particular, WRAP wanted to see if these ordinary household items could be recycled to make new ones, rather than having to use virgin plastics every time. There is currently a 'Catch 22' situation, with few local authorities prepared to collect plastic waste other than bottles, as there is limited potential for them to be recycled. However, this means there is a lack of such plastics available for companies to attempt to do so. WRAP's research included trials of sorting different types of plastics, an analysis of the type of technology needed, an estimate of running costs, and modelling of the financial rate of return. It also compared the environmental impacts of different ways of dealing with this type of plastic waste, including burning it and sending it to landfill. The research showed that, in addition to the environmental benefits, recycling can be cheaper than both these options. Overall, landfill is the least favourable option for disposing of plastics waste. However, in terms of global warming potential the research found that incineration of plastic packaging was the worst option. This is because more CO2 is emitted by burning plastics than by burning gas or coal to generate the same amount of electricity. The research showed that, on balance, the best environmental option is to invest in technology to produce high quality recycled plastics, but there will still be a need for solid recovered fuel (SRF) in some cases. Consequently, it makes sense to build integrated plants capable of both options as this improves the economic benefit and maximises the environmental impact. Liz Goodwin, CEO WRAP, said: "We are delighted to have Iain Gulland on board as WRAP's new Director for Scotland and believe his appointment will help drive some real environmental changes in this area and others. "[i]This is the first time that we have been able to prove that recycling mixed plastics is not only possible, but cost-effective and makes good environmental sense. WRAP's research is a first step towards getting that plastic out of the household bin and back in use. This will reduce the need for us to use large amounts of energy producing new plastics and the oil required in their content[/i]." Professor Jim Baird from Remade Scotland, said: "[i]Remade Scotland and WRAP are working together to find solutions to the problems of recycling mixed plastics in Scotland. This event is an opportunity for us to present the results of our research and to explore the practical options for stimulating more recycling with other industry professionals[/i]."

EU waste policy not fit for future Posted: 27 Jun 2008 07:40 AM CDT Environmental NGOs are deeply disappointed with this week's European Parliament vote on the revised Waste Framework Directive. Parliament accepted a pre-arranged deal that sets inadequate European recycling targets and no target for waste prevention. A number of MEPs made a lastditch attempt to re-insert the Parliament's original stronger targets, but this was defeated. Member States are now expected to ratify this deal which will become law by the end of 2008. Nathalie Cliquot, waste policy officer of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), said, "[i]Everyone understands that increasing waste and sustainable development do not go together, yet pressure from EU Governments led to postponing discussions for common prevention targets until 2014. Nevertheless, Governments are required to implement waste prevention programmes and the Commission has the difficult task of ensuring that they deliver – it should swiftly propose common prevention targets[/i]". Dr Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE) said, "This vote gives the EU its first ever general recycling targets; however they are too low to address the urgency of resource and climate threats. They also exclude too many significant waste streams and will be difficult to enforce. The Commission must now work hard to gather the information necessary so when targets are reviewed in 2014 they are made stronger, matching best practice around Europe." MEPs also agreed with a proposal to re-brand some incinerators as 'recovery' rather than 'disposal', a decision which ignored evidence that incineration contributes to climate change rather than acts as a climate solution [3]. Incineration is also inflexible and expensive and can limit recycling rates, as reflected by Denmark's opposition to a mandatory 50% household recycling rate because they already have too many incinerators. Given the clear need for – and achievability of – higher recycling targets, Member States cannot afford to put in place such expensive and inflexible residual waste technologies. Dr Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE), said "EU Governments should be planning for future increases in recycling and prevention targets, not in wasteful and expensive incineration." EEB and FOEE are also very concerned that MEPs supported a loose definition of 'by-products', which will allow many materials that are currently classified as waste to escape from safety controls. Nathalie Cliquot of EEB said "[i]Allowing potentially hazardous materials to escape waste controls – and even to be exported to the developing world – through the new by-products definition is a serious error; the Commission must ensure strict controls are in place[/i]."

New hazardous waste research shows map of a growing market Posted: 27 Jun 2008 07:37 AM CDT In 2007 the amount of hazardous waste that was collected and treated in Europe accounted to 67.6 million tonnes. It represents only a small percent of the total waste generated. However, its toxicity, technical/infrastructure expertise needed to handle them and the harmful impact it could have on the environment have made hazardous waste a cause of concern. Most of the European countries have government agencies that take care of issues related to hazardous waste. They are also responsible for the development and implementation of policies related to hazardous waste. Western Europe has a well developed hazardous waste management services market which was valued $8.10 billion in 2007. 'Waste management especially hazardous waste has always been given its share of importance in Europe', says Frost & Sullivan Research Associate Karthikeyan Ravikumar. 'The changes made to the definition of hazardous waste in the European Waste Catalogue seem to have benefited the hazardous waste treatment market. It has widened the definition of hazardous waste thereby adding waste such as contaminated soil to the list of hazardous waste. This has considerably increased the hazardous waste volumes entering the treatment market. The implementation of the landfill directive in June 2002 too has had a huge impact on alternate treatment techniques. It has diverted waste previously disposed in landfills to alternate treatment techniques such as thermal treatment, physical/chemical treatment, stabilization and recycling. This directive has helped alternate treatment techniques especially in the recycling sector'. But let's see how the situation is in some European countries. Hazardous waste management services market is an important economic factor in Germany with more than 1,000,000 employees employed in the sector generating revenues of over $2 billion in 2007. The total volume of hazardous waste treated in Germany amounts to about 11 million tonnes in 2007. 'Well developed policies, legislation and infrastructure have made Germany one of the dominant players in the European hazardous waste market,' continues Frost & Sullivan analyst Ravikumar. 'Strong infrastructure has further made Germany a key destination for hazardous waste in Europe. Increased waste generation, stringent laws and inadequate treatment facilities in other European countries especially the developing Eastern European countries has resulted in the export of waste to Germany. This trend is expected to continue because of the strong industrial growth witnessed in some Eastern European countries and some major market players are looking at those countries as growth markets for the future'. The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland hazardous waste management services is the second largest market with a value of $1.10 billion in 2007. United Kingdom and ROI have historically relied upon landfill as a source of cheap and widely available waste disposal method. This reliance has effectively been changed with the implementation of the Landfill directive, which came into effect in 2004. As a result, a drift away from landfills towards alternate treatment techniques such as recycling and physical/chemical treatment of hazardous waste is the order of the day. This is a common trend observed all over Europe. The historic decision of the French authorities to focus on incineration and valorization as the ultimate methods of disposal for hazardous wastes has made thermal treatment the most favored technique in France. The French hazardous waste management services market is the third largest in Europe with a value of $909 million in 2007. France has emerged as a major treatment center and import destination for hazardous waste from other European countries that lack the required infrastructure especially thermal treatment. Less restriction on the import of waste assisted by available capacity has made France a favorite destination for treatment and final disposal. Italy, Iberia, Benelux, Alpine and Scandinavia are other major markets in Europe. The West European hazardous waste management services market which has reached maturity in many countries is expected to experience a stable growth for the next seven years. On green technologies and green growth opportunities Frost & Sullivan organises an executive symposium titled The Global Green Revolution 2008: Driving Growth Through Sustainable Technology and Innovation.The event will focus on strategies for seizing real market opportunities for sustainable technology innovation to drive growth. It will take place on 17 September, 2008 in San Francisco, California. Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents.

LIFE and waste recycling: Innovative waste management options in Europe Posted: 27 Jun 2008 04:53 AM CDT This brochure examines the contribution the LIFE programme has made to promoting innovative waste management in Europe. It sets out the major European waste legislation and provides information on a series of LIFE projects engaged in innovative solutions to waste management through recovery, recycling or reuse. [b]Download[/b]: [url=http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/publications/lifepublications/lifefocus/documents/recycling.pdf]LIFE and waste recycling[/url]

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