Waste
An interim discussion paper
Strategy Unit 13 September 2002
- Introduction
- What’s already being achieved?
- The future holds increasing challenges
- Rising waste volumes: the main drivers
- The Challenge: shifting to more sustainable waste management
- Table 1: Methods of Waste Management, by Country
- Waste management : the EU Directive
- Waste management : the strategic choices facing the UK
- Table 2: European Waste strategies
- There are no easy answers to the challenge
- Waste management : barriers to change
- Waste management and disposal
- Next steps for the study
1. This discussion paper, which is not a statement of Government policy, highlights the reasons why waste is an important issue and invites views and comments on how the growth in waste volumes should be dealt with. Final recommendations will be included in a report due to be published in the Autumn.
2. Securing improvements in the environment and promoting sustainable development are key policy goals of this Government. Action has been taken both domestically and internationally in a broad range of areas in pursuit of these goals. Achievements include: taking the lead internationally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to tackle global warming; improving urban air quality; and improving both drinking and river water quality.
3. Changing the way that waste and resources are managed can make an important contribution to improving quality of life and actioning sustainable development. Indicators and targets have been set
1 to help drive an overall reduction in waste and improvements in managing it.4. Many environmental and sustainable development challenges remain.
For this reason the Strategy Unit (formally the Performance and Innovation Unit) was tasked at the end of last year with helping DEFRA to deliver its Waste Strategy 2000 . The Unit has therefore been looking at how England manages its waste stream and what can be learnt from the approaches taken by other nations. This includes looking at the instruments, changes to regulations or additional funding that may be required to ensure that England can meet its domestic waste targets and international obligations in the most cost effective and environmentally sustainable way.5. The study has centred mainly on municipal solid waste (i.e. waste produced by households and small businesses that is collected by local authorities), because this is the focal point of some important EU legislation. The EU Landfill Directive sets the UK tough targets for 2010 and beyond for the amount of municipal biodegradable waste sent to landfill. The SU is also taking an overview of hazardous, industrial and commercial wastes
2 because these must be managed and disposed of in line with waste regulations, and are increasingly affected by EU Directives.6. The SU’s focus has been on England, because waste policy is devolved.
Scotland and Northern Ireland already have their own waste strategies and Wales is currently developing its waste plans. The growth in waste volumes affects all of the UK, and our international obligations to tackle waste, outlined later in this paper, apply UK-wide. The SU has therefore been discussing economic and regulatory instruments for dealing with waste with colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.-
Quality of Life Counts, Waste Strategy 2000
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Descriptions of different types of waste are included in Waste Strategy 2000
What’s already being achieved?
7. For municipal waste:
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the proportion of household waste recycled (including composting) has increased steadily from 7% in 1996/7 to 11% in 2000/013;
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the proportion of households served by kerbside recycling collections schemes has increased from 48% in 1999/00 to 51% in 2000/014;
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statutory targets for local authorities for recycling of waste have been introduced; and
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inroads have begun to be made into the proportion of municipal waste disposed of to landfill, from 80% in 1999/2000 to 78% in 2000/01.
The future holds increasing challenges
8. The amount of municipal waste produced by the UK is growing at around 3% per year. This is faster than growth in GDP and is one of the fastest growth rates in Europe.
5 Growth in waste volumes is the most important driver of the rising cost of waste management in the UK.9. There is a need for action to curb the continuing rise in waste volumes and to shift to more sustainable ways of managing the waste stream if the UK is to meet tightening EU legislation and domestic policy goals.
10. But first some key statistics about the UK’s waste which highlight both the challenge policymaker’s face and the potential for further improvement:
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England, Municipal Waste Survey 2000/01
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England, Municipal Waste Survey 2000/01
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Source: OECD/Eurostat data. Eg % increase/year 1991-1999=2.48% in Belgium; 2.55% in Austria; 0.43% in Denmark, compared to 3.87% in the UK (Eurostat figures)
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Did you know that… |
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Every week the UK produces enough rubbish to fill Wembley stadium. Over half of that could be recycled. [Source: DETR]Each year households, commerce and industry in the UK produces over 100 million tonnes of waste. In one year there would be enough waste to fill dustbins stretching from the Earth to the Moon. [Source: LGB Publications]By 2020 the amount of municipal waste generated by the UK is set to double. 6Each tonne of paper recycled saves 15 trees, as well as their surrounding habitat and wildlife. [Source: World Wildlife Fund]Up to 90% of new glass could be made from reclaimed scrap glass, which saves energy and raw materials . [Source: British Glass]The UK uses over 6 billion glass containers each year, amounting to over 2 million tonnes. In 1998, 22% of these containers were recycled. The European average is 50%, with some countries recycling over 80%. [Source: British Glass]Recycling aluminium can bring energy savings of up to 95% and produce 95% less greenhouse gas emissions than when it is produced from raw materials. [Source: Alupro]About 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging (worth £8 million) is wasted each year. Only 3,000 tonnes is recycled. [Source: Alupro]Packaging is typically 25-35% by weight of dustbin waste. Reducing the amount of packaging saves on transport costs and emissions as well as reducing consumption of raw materials. Every plastic bag sent to landfill takes 500 years to decay. The UK uses 500 million of these each week. [Source: Rethink Rubbish Campaign]A third of household waste could be composted (eg garden waste). [Source: INCPEN)Much of the UK’s waste could be of value to someone else – old clothes, toys, bric-a-brac or furniture are often useful to charitable organisations. [Source: INCPEN] |
Rising waste volumes: the main drivers
11. Waste growth is fuelled by a range of economic and social factors linked to growing prosperity, including rising household income, increasing household numbers and changing household types (e.g. more smaller households); changing lifestyles (e.g. more working from home); influential advertising (e.g. encouraging us to discard non-upgradeable electronics for the latest model); and the growth in sales of pre-packaged goods.
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Waste Strategy 2000/Strategy Unit analysis
The Challenge: shifting to more sustainable waste management
12. The challenge is to reduce the growth of waste - and the costs and resources associated with managing it - without harming economic growth and prosperity.
13. Every year the UK produces 28 million tonnes of municipal waste, almost 80% of which goes straight to landfill
7. Whilst this is similar to some countries e.g. Italy, it is higher than in France which landfills 49% of its waste; Austria 35% and the Netherlands 12%. Historically the UK has relied on landfilling because of its geology, and the fact that landfilling is the cheapest method of waste disposal.14. There are good reasons for reducing the volume of waste sent to landfill:
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Landfilling biodegradable waste produces 25% of the UK’s methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.8
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Landfilling means that resources, which could otherwise be recycled or reused with associated benefits to the environment, are lost, making no contribution to sustainable development.
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The UK is currently running out of landfill sites in some areas of England such as the South-East. Transporting waste further distances to be landfilled will mean even more burdens on the environment.
15. The rate of recycling in the UK has been steadily increasing and is on a par with Italy and France. A comparison of the UK’s approach to municipal waste management with other nations is shown in table 1 below:
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Overall, the UK produces 400 million tonnes of waste per year. 100 million tonnes comes from households, commerce and industry. A further 300 million tonnes is made up of construction and demolition wastes, agricultural wastes, mining wastes, sewage sludge and dredged spoils.
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"Zero Waste" Robin Murray
Table 1: Methods of Waste Management, by Country
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16. It is difficult to make direct comparisons between the European member states as there are differences in the definitions used for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and it is not always possible to access reliable data from the same year. This needs to be taken into consideration as the data in the table above has been obtained from a range of years and it is acknowledged that throughout Europe discrepancies occur as to what constitutes MSW. However, the table does form a useful reference point in terms of providing an indication of the preferred management options for waste across some member states.
Waste management : the EU Directive
17. The EU Landfill Directive aims to prevent, or reduce as far as possible, the negative environmental impacts of landfill. The Directive sets targets for reducing the UK’s reliance on landfilling biodegradable waste from 2010. The Directive’s main requirements are set out below.
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From Waste Strategy 2000
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Main requirements of the Landfill Directive: |
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18. The EU could impose fines for non-compliance with the Directive. This might mean potential fines for the UK of up to £180 million per year from 2010 for non-compliance if action is not taken to reduce reliance on landfill.
19. To help to deliver this goal, Waste Strategy 2000 set a target of 25% of household waste to be recycled/composted by 2005. The current rate in England is 11%. Without further progress, the UK will get further away from the Directive targets, as chart 1 below shows.
Chart 1: The gap between biodegradable landfill and EU Landfill Directive Targets (mt)
Source: Strategy Unit analysis
Waste management : the strategic choices facing the UK
20. The key questions the SU study has been addressing include:
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How can the UK reduce its rate of municipal waste growth?
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If it can, what is the likely amount of waste the UK will need to manage?
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How much of the UK’s municipal solid waste can be cost-effectively and feasibly managed by recycling and composting?
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How does the UK deal with residual waste? What role should be played by incineration, landfill, and new technologies, while still complying with the EU Landfill Directive? How will costs change over time and at what rate?
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How does the UK weigh up the costs and the environmental, health and social impacts of the different options?
21. The EU Waste Hierarchy sets out a theoretical framework for how nations should be effectively managing their waste. This is shown below: action should be as high up the hierarchy as possible to support sustainable development and reduce the impact on the environment.
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Waste minimisation – reducing waste produced by industry or households through efficient production and design, reduction of packaging or reducing waste that needs to be collected through home composting. |
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Re-use – re-use of products and materials around the home or via waste swap shops or waste exchanges. |
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Recycling – recycling of materials eg paper and aluminium, or Composting eg green waste |
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Thermal treatment/energy recovery – incineration, gasification or pyrolysis |
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Final Disposal - landfill |
22. Most other nations in the EU and many other countries including the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, rely on a mixture of alternative options to landfill, often depending on the type of waste involved. Some EU nations are putting even more focus on reducing waste growth, increasing recycling and developing new technologies to tackle waste. These countries tend to have high public awareness of the waste problem. Many have introduced education programmes informing businesses and the public how to go about waste reduction, re-use, recycling and composting.
23. International experience has demonstrated that long lead times have been involved in getting new infrastructure in place and changing behaviour. For example, in the Netherlands and Belgium it has taken 10-15 years to achieve change following significant increases in Landfill Tax, producer responsibility and new waste infrastructure.
24. A few specific examples of the means used across Europe to promote options high up the waste hierarchy are given below. All these instruments have pros and cons.
| Waste prevention and minimisation is tackled in a number of countries through the use of product taxes on a life-cycle approach. For example, Denmark has a general tax on disposable items such as batteries, electric bulbs, tyres and pesticides. Similarly, Belgium has a product tax on a number of items including disposable drink containers and some types of packaging. Italy and recently Ireland have introduced taxes on carrier bags. |
| Waste minimisation, reuse and recycling is successfully promoted in a number of countries through deposit refund schemes. Sweden, for example, operates such a scheme for glass and plastic bottles, and aluminium cans, and Germany for a variety of products. Some countries have reported high administrative costs in setting up such schemes, although return levels of between 60-99% have been achieved in most cases. |
| Diversion from landfill via other options has been encouraged in a number of countries through the use of landfill taxes, often administered with additional instruments including landfill bans on certain types of waste. The current UK landfill tax rate is £13.0010 (20.3 Euros) per tonne contrasts with landfill tax rates in countries such as Denmark (50 Euros per tonne) and Austria (43.6 Euros per tonne). The use of landfill taxes has proved to be a useful source of funding for developing alternative infrastructures for managing waste and incentivising people to use alternative waste management approaches. In addition, regulations ban the landfill of certain wastes. |
25. Many of the most successful European nations have in place packages of both legislative and incentive-based measures for moving waste management up the waste hierarchy. Across Europe, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland rely on instruments including landfill taxes, landfill bans of some waste streams and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR extends the responsibility of producers for environmental impacts of their products to the entire life cycle including take-back, recycling and disposal.
26. Table 2 shows that a number of European countries have in place well established instruments for tackling waste.
10 The Government announced in the 1999 Budget that it in intends to raise the standard rate of landfill tax by £1 per tonne in April each year to 2004, subject to Parliamentary approval. Budget 2002 stated that "The Government anticipates that the rates of landfill tax will need to be increased significantly in the medium term as part of the mix of future policy measures. The Government will take future decisions on landfill tax, and consider the case for a tax on incineration, in the light of the findings of the PIU waste project."
HM Treasury Budget 2002
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Table 2: European Waste strategies: some examples (v = measures known to be already in widespread use to support waste strategies) |
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* **Municipal Solid Waste. MSW is subject to some variation in definition eg some countries include home composting, and construction and demolition waste in recycling figures. Others do not. ***Ban on the landfill of separately collected paper and paperboard, separately collected food and garden waste and municipal waste from households ****Eg compulsory deposits on certain types of disposable packaging from January 2003. Germany now recycles 80% of household packaging. *****Eg Investment grants are provided for the development of new biological treatment plants. |
27. The SU’s analysis has found some common waste ‘myths’. A few of
these follow.|
Common waste ‘myths’ |
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Doing nothing is a cheap option for the UK… Even if the UK does nothing and retains current cheap landfill methods, taxpayers in the UK will face an increased bill of £1.6bn a year by 2020. This is just to cope with the extra 24 million tonnes of waste the UK will produce per year by this date if waste continues to grow by 3% per year. The EU Landfill Directive, in any event, commits the UK to diverting more waste from landfill or it could face very large fines. |
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The public already pays heavily for waste collection and disposal through Council Tax bills… The vast majority of households think that they pay a higher cost for waste management than is actually the case. The majority of people believe that around £200 per year of Council Tax is spent on waste management and almost a third think they pay over £260. The reality is closer to £50 per household per year after taking into account central Government grants.11 |
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Most people in the UK recycle their waste… 85% of the UK population say that they recycle waste12 – if 85% of people did recycle everything recyclable on a regular basis this would translate into a national recycling rate of 45%. Currently although the rate is increasing, it is lower than that at 12%. |
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Doing ‘my little bit’ won’t make a difference… Even small lifestyle changes can help the environment. If all the aluminium cans sold in the UK were recycled there would be 12 million fewer dustbins of waste each year.13 Every tonne of glass recycled saves more than a tonne of raw materials.14 That means less quarrying, less damage to the countryside, less pollution and global warming, and more energy savings. Switching from plastic to reusable glass bottles, recycling newspapers, choosing products containing recyclable materials, reusing carrier bags, and composting garden cuttings can directly benefit the environment and reduce cost increases due to waste growth. These kinds of activity have helped bring about lower waste growth rates and higher recycling rates in other nations. |
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My life style’s too busy to take action on waste… Making a few changes to everyday actions at home, at work, or when shopping need not take much time. Separating out newspapers, aluminium cans and glass bottles each week only takes a few minutes, and these can often be deposited at recycling banks provided at supermarkets or other convenient outlets or collected in council recycling schemes. |
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Waste Watch "1999 What people think about waste" and MORI survey for the Environmental Services Association
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Waste Watch "1999 What people think about waste"
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Alucan website
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DETR ‘Every little bit helps’
There are no easy answers to the challenge
28. Based on current trends and policies, the Strategy Unit forecasts that the UK will face a further 24 million tonnes of municipal waste by 2020 – almost double the current levels – and continue to landfill. This poses a significant challenge in developing policies to move the UK to a more sustainable system of waste management. But waste is a complex issue:
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the SU‘s analysis confirms that the rate of waste growth is a huge cost driver so minimising the amount of waste the UK produces will be important. This is a difficult task, and will require significant changes in industry practice and in consumer and household behaviour. But if amounts of waste can be reduced, this will mean that fewer costly waste management facilities will need to be built;
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recycling more of the UK’s waste will move it further up the Waste Hierarchy. However, additional upfront costs will be involved in setting up the necessary recycling infrastructure and public attitudes and behaviour will need to change so that the majority of households, that are able to do so, participate in recycling. Even when kerbside recycling facilities are provided, public participation can vary from 30-90%.15 This demonstrates the importance of effective publicity and education campaigns.
…in short, there is no one single, or easy answer.
Waste management : barriers to change
29. The SU have identified a number of barriers to change including:
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variable take up of recycling as well as other alternatives to landfilling (eg new technologies), because of insufficient investment in infrastructure and collection and disposal methods;
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low public awareness and a lack of incentives to change household behaviour. This is despite the fact that many people do make an effort to recycle and some local authorities have shown that it is possible to increase recycling rates to as much as 40%;
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a lack of mature good markets for recycled materials in the UK – even though WRAP – the
despite industry behaviour in part being changed through the introduction of Producer Responsibility measures (eg reducing quantities of packaging), more needs to be done to make a real impact on reducing waste growth and promoting recycling;
public perceptions tend to be focused on the potential environmental and health hazards of waste disposal. The SU has reviewed the environmental emission levels and health risks of different waste management options and sought to put these into a wider context, as shown below.
15 Research by Friends of the Earth and Professor Peter Tucker, University of Paisley
Waste management and disposal: environmental and health impacts in context
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The waste disposal and recycling industry is responsible for 4.3%, 0.32% and 5.2%16 of emissions to air, water and sewer respectively. Other industrial activity therefore has a far greater impact than the waste disposal and recycling industry.
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These percentages would be lower still if other unregulated emissions to our atmosphere e.g. car use, bonfires, barbecues etc were included in these figures.
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There have been concerns raised about the environmental and health effects of emissions from all waste management facilities. However, emissions from the waste industry need to be seen in the context that:
- Emissions of greenhouse gases (barring methane from landfill) are already low relative to other activities, and have been falling as new regulations have come in.
- Failure to improve the management of existing waste streams will be more harmful than reducing waste production and adding new, well regulated and monitored waste treatment facilities (composting/recycling plants, thermal treatment plants and other technologies) to manage waste and reduce emissions still further. -
The UK needs to continue to improve its ability to compare existing and new facilities on an equal footing to help local authorities find the best solution for their area and manage risk effectively.
30. The SU is still conducting its analysis and holding discussions with waste experts and other stakeholders. The SU will report its findings later this year.
31. The
Spending Review 2002 announced additional resources for local authorities to help them kick-start the shift away from landfill. Final decisions on funding will be made when the SU’s report is published.32. The SU is seeking your views and input to the study via this web site.
Please
click here for some specific questions the project team would like your help with. You can e-mail the team at: wasteteam@cabinetoffice.x.gsi.gov.uk or write to: The Waste team, Strategy Unit, Admiralty Arch,The Mall, London SW1A 2WH, by
30 September 2002. Please see the project scoping note for further background information about the study.-
Based on total 2000 aggregated releases. Source: Environment Agency Pollution Inventory
33. If you would like to find out more about waste issues, some suggested web sites are listed below:
The Strategy Unit exists to provide the Prime Minister and Government departments with a project-based capacity to look creatively at strategic long-term issues.
The Strategy Unit is an important part of the drive for better, more joined-up, Government as set out in the Modernising Government White Paper of March 1999. The Unit acts as a resource for the whole of Government and tackles issues on a project basis, focusing on medium/long-term issues that cross public sector institutional boundaries. In addition, the Unit takes on short-term projects responding to direct requests from No10 Downing Street.
The Unit reports direct to the Prime Minister through the Cabinet
Secretary.Strategy Unit
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