Waste

Although this slide illustrates how household waste is managed in a non-EU country, the photographs could have been taken in Germany, Sweden or most other EU countries. They were taken in Romanel-sur-Lausanne, a village where I used to live, with a population of about 3,000 souls. The waste "stockade" is only one of three or four similar, in strategic spots around the village. The way this worked is that householders were expected to sort out their rubbish. Twice a week, there was a door-to-door collection of household waste (scrap food and anything that was un-recyclable). In some Communes, this had to be placed in special bags with a printed vignette, as a means of perceiving the collection tax; this encouraged householders to minimise their waste because the more bags you fill, the more it costs. Once every three months, there was a collection of bulky objects (furniture, bicycles, non-electrical appliances etc.), a separate collection of electrical appliances, except refrigerators and freezers. The last-named were collected regularly, on demand, but they had a special tax imposed on them, for destruction without liberating any ozone-depleting chemicals. All the recyclable material was taken to the "stockade", by the householders. The last image shows the village "voirie", where hazardous materials could be taken to be disposed of. Not shown is a composting site, where garden refuse could be taken, to produce a fine compost for the villagers' use.

This may seem a costly exercise, but the village authorities actually sold all the recyclable waste, which paid for all the costs involved in maintaining the stockades, collecting the filled bins (about once per week) and so on (you can see that the ground of the "stockade" is paved and kept clean).

Incidentally, the twice-weekly household refuse collection goes straight to a special incinerator which serves the whole of the Lausanne region (about 150,000 population), the heat from which is used to generate about 10 per cent of the region's electricity requirements and to provide heating and hot water to a large University hospital complex. (See essay on Renewable Energy.) This is also a paying proposition and, above all, it reduces the landfill volume by about 90 percent. Scrap wood is also sent to the incinerator, whether it be from forest management, building and demolition sites or broken furniture from the quarterly bulky objects collection.

Landfills

Many landfills are a total disgrace and do not conform to regulations. There is often no control of the way they are managed or the waste that goes into them. EU regulations are very strict in that they have to be constructed in a manner that can be safely capped and with separate landfills for hazardous, non-hazardous (domestic) and inert wastes. However, the volume of landfilled waste must be reduced progressively to 35 per cent of the current levels over a number of years. This implies maximum recycling and incineration. Greece was fined €20,000 per day for about a year because of a single non-compliant landfill on one of the islands, with both industrial (hazardous) and domestic waste being deposited in the same landfill.

It is interesting that the UK taxes the use of landfills, over and above operators' charges, at the rate of £15/tonne (figure valid from 1 April 2004). This must surely be a good incentive to minimise landfill use. On the other hand, it may incite illicit dumping elsewhere, which is dangerous.

Recycling

The easiest way of reducing the volume of waste is by recycling as much as possible. One polypropylene bag given to you in a supermarket may weigh only 5 g, but if you count the millions that are consumed every week, the annual tonnage is large. This could be cut down significantly without any inconvenience to the consumer. The first action is to motivate consumers to empty them carefully and then sort them into reusable (clean, untorn) ones and others, which can be used for waste paper basket liners or similar or, if they are totally unusable, placed in a pile for sending to a recycling bin. A few only, dirty ones, may end up in the dustbin. The next time you go shopping, take your good ones with you and use them, instead of new ones; each bag should, on an average, be good for three to four trips to the supermarket. The supermarkets themselves can make new ones available only on request; better still, they can charge, say, 5 cents each for them as an incentive towards recycling. If they make them tougher, so that they can make at least a dozen journeys, it would be worthwhile to charge more, say 15 cents. An even better alternative would be to have empty cartons (also reusable) available: this is common practice in Europe and avoids the need for bags altogether. One UK supermarket chain sold robust plastic boxes (I think for £5) which were estimated to be good for several hundred trips. They fitted into the trolley, so that the purchases could be placed straight in them at the check-out, and made packing the boot of the car almost instantaneous (and faster check-outs). This is just one simple way that everyone can do, with no inconvenience.

Plastics

Recycling plastics is a problem because there are so many different types which should not be mixed. Many items have a two to four letter code adjacent to a recyclable sign, indicating the type of plastic it is (non-exhaustive list):

Symbol	Plastic (trade names in italics)
PE	Polyethylene, Polythene
HDPE	High-density polyethylene
LDPE	Low-density polyethylene
PVC	Polyvinyl chloride
PP	Polypropylene
PS	Polystyrene
PET	Polyethylene teraphthalate Terylene
PC	Polycarbonate Makrolon
PMMA	Polymethyl methylacrylate Perspex, Plexiglass
PTFE	Polytetrafluoroethylene Teflon, Fluon

PET drinks and mineral water bottles are a special case. They cannot be reused for hygienic reasons. The caps and rings should be discarded with PVC, PP or PE, according to their markings and the bottle flattened as far as is possible. They can then be chopped up and melted for making clothing fibres, ropes and other quality items. Unfortunately, the supply exceeds the demand so, inevitably, the remainder are preferably incinerated. However, a Japanese company has recently announced that they have found a way of breaking the plastic down, back into its original chemical components, meaning that new bottles can safely be made from old. It is too early to say whether this process will be viable.

In some European countries, a cash deposit is placed on bottles, to ensure they are returned, rather than simply thrown away.

Aluminium

Aluminium (or aluminum for our Transatlantic friends) is the most profitable material for recycling, whether from drinks cans, foil, pie cases, machining swarf etc. Extraordinarily, scrap aluminium is even quoted on the London Metal Exchange. Why should this be? Mainly because the electrolytic smelting of aluminium from ore requires massive quantities of energy, whereas the remelting of scrap requires only a few percent of it. There is no excuse to throw away even dirty or painted aluminium, as organic material is gasified in a pre-heating phase and the gas is used to perform the same preheating!

Paper and cardboard

Just think of the tons of newspapers (and bureaucratic paperasserie issued by governments!) that are read once and then thrown away, not to mention cardboard used for packing. This is all recyclable. In fact, there is a mandatory obligation to recycle up to 45 percent of all packing materials (non-paper, as well as paper) under EU directives. Why should this valuable material be simply thrown away and lost for ever in a landfill (probably emitting methane into the bargain).

Hazardous waste

This is defined as any waste material that could damage the environment. This includes products like used hydrocarbons, car batteries, dry batteries, accumulators, paint, all chemicals, heavy metals, solvents and many others. The handling of hazardous waste requires skill in identifying the nature of the product and the safe disposal. Let us take a car battery as a typical example. To start with, lead is a highly toxic metal and all lead compounds must never be allowed to enter into nature. Apart from the obvious immediate danger, there is also a (very small) risk of underground drinking water sources being contaminated. The outer case is usually some form of plastic and it can be recycled after emptying and cleaning. The liquid inside is dilute sulfuric acid with some solubilised lead sulfate. This has to be neutralised with caustic soda: a small (harmless) excess of soda to a pH of 7.5 will cause all the lead salts to precipitate as lead hydroxide and they can be filtered out and recycled. If the sodium sulfate solution is acceptable for disposal, as is, then this can be done, otherwise it will have to be concentrated by an ion exchange mechanism or in evaporation beds, drummed and landfilled in a licensed site for chemicals. There will be solid sediments at the bottom of the battery, consisting mainly of lead salts and oxides and particles of flaked-off lead. These have to be recovered. The plates consist of a lead framework with lead oxide paste inserts. The metallic lead can be recovered for recycling by melting it and the oxides skimmed off. All the lead salts and oxides from these processes form an extremely rich lead ore that can be smelted into metallic lead for re-use. The dross from this process must be skimmed, drummed and landfilled, still as hazardous waste. Finally, the separators, a porous plastic, can be incinerated in a suitable installation which will recover the sequestered lead in the ash. It is obvious that these processes cannot be done by just anybody, and an expensive infrastructure is required. This includes the licensed landfill, which must be totally sealed in a lined concrete structure with extensive waste water treatment for all the run-off. On no account should rain water falling on the landfill be permitted to escape into the ground. Similar restrictions apply to all other hazardous waste. If it is combustible, it should be used as a fuel additive in appropriate installations, such as cement kilns equipped with flue gas scrubbers and precipitators (never in installations without these).

Electrical and electronic waste

This is a special consideration and I have devoted a whole essay on this problem.

Refrigeration equipment

This is a particular case, because all old refrigerators, freezers, chillers and air-conditioners contain CFCs (ozone-depleting gases) in the cold circuit and in the foam insulation. More modern ones may contain HCFCs (also ozone-depleting) or HFCs (greenhouse gases). They are therefore all polluting if not recycled correctly. International regulations are very strict on this matter: it is illegal to dispose of this equipment except through a means whereby the polluting gases can be fully recovered for recycling or destruction. This is usually done by placing the item in a crusher which is fully enclosed in a gas-tight compartment, so that all the gas can be withdrawn and collected from both the compressor circuit and the foam insulation. Perhaps better, another way is to cut the pipework with a special tool with a gas-tight surround to extract the gas, then dismantle the foam, which is then pulverised in a vacuum container to extract the gas from it. This method has the advantage of easier recycling of all the parts at a lower capital cost, but does require more labour.

Some countries charge a recycling tax on all cold equipment, as it costs a typical €50 (USD 60) to correctly recycle a household fridge.

Some countries have had problems providing a sufficient number of qualified recycling facilities for refrigeration equipment. In the UK, for example, there is a mountainous backlog of equipment awaiting destruction. One report has stated that illicit destruction has taken place by throwing many old fridges over a bridge into the Clyde, in Glasgow, certainly easier and cheaper than legal recycling, but not good for the ozone layer. However, it is believed that this case may have been a criminal scam.

It is illegal to ship refrigeration equipment containing CFCs to other countries.

Cars

The EU has strict directives in force governing the disposal of cars and other road vehicles. All fluids, batteries, tyres and sources of heavy metals must be removed before recycling the metal. Of course, the removed materials must also be recycled or destroyed correctly. This has yet to be implemented in Cyprus.

Conclusion

Many countries have a long and painful way, both for the country and the individual, before they can pretend to even approach the standards that are in force in the EU and other Western countries. It will require a radical change of mindset before many persons realise that waste is a serious matter.

Introduction