On Monday I gave a seminar on carbon footprinting and carbon management (using the Terra Infirma brainstorming tool) at the Association of Charity Shops Annual Conference in Keele. I learnt a lot, as I always do in this trade (I've worked with everyone from multi-national pharmaceutical companies through to a crazy golf course - you pick up all sorts of weird factoids). The sector is a huge, professionally run, and very competitive retail operation, a huge chunk of the reuse industry and a huge source of materials for recyclers. This was not lost on the three recycling companies who sponsored the event.

The seminar went to plan and was well received - despite some shock when we spent half the time actually doing some work. Solutions we generated included checking tyre pressure of vehicles, better use of steamers, buying translucent kettles and even screwing down the thermostat dials. The big contentious issue is open/closed door. As with all shops, open door = more sales but massive energy loss. We didn't resolve this one, but if anyone can think of a solution, post it in the comments.

Labels: carbon footprint, carbon management, charity shops, recycling, retail

Once again recently I was proudly told by a factory manager "We don't have a waste problem - we recycle 95% of it - isn't that fantastic?". Recycling is great, but your fantastic achievement may be hiding waste reduction opportunities.

Taking a manufacturing business as an example, there are three types of waste:

1. Unavoidable process waste - waste that is intrinsic to your business. If you produce, say, chocolate flavouring from cocoa beans, then you will have cocoa residues left over no matter what. This should be recycled where possible and, if you are really clever, you can adjust your process to maximise its value for recycling/reuse.

2. Avoidable process waste - for example, offcuts, packaging of materials/components, solvents etc. Here you have a choice - eradication, recycling or normal disposal. Soaring landfill taxes are starting to rule out the latter for all but 'difficult materials', so you effectively have a choice of whether to reduce or recycle - that largely comes down to practicalities and economics.

3. Off-spec product (or components) - this is the worst kind of waste as you have added value to it only to throw it away. This waste should be terminated with extreme prejudice - particularly towards the end of your process where the value lost is the highest - I've seen far too many horror shows of good product being sprayed across factory floors by packing machines or careless forklift drivers.

I once heard waste described as "stuff you buy that you can't sell" - a brilliant summation of the economic driver to reduce waste.

Labels: recycling, waste, waste minimisation

This is the fourth in a new series of tips extracted from the forthcoming Green Business Bible e-book:

It's always intrigued me that in offices we have a general waste bin by our desks and a recycling bin typically at the end of the corridor. Why not put a paper recycling bin by each desk and a general waste bin further away? Your used paper collection will soar as a result.

Another tip next Monday!

Labels: paper, recycling, tips

Edie is reporting today that soaring scrap metal prices have lead to thefts from recycling plants and buildings. This confirmed my suspicion that the market was experiencing a boom - in my neighbourhood, manhole covers have recently gone missing and a children's frieze cast in copper was cut up and removed from the local park. It seems a long way from a couple of years ago when the low value of scrap metal was leading to cars being dumped by the roadside by unscrupulous owners wanting to avoid small charges to dispose of their vehicles.

As well as encouraging crime and anti-social behaviour, these severe fluctuations in recyclate prices make operating in the recycling market difficult. Recycling companies keep their gate fees high to mitigate risk, leading to lower recycling rates. This is not well understood by waste producers - I often find myself explaining to small companies that there is little chance that recyclers will collect their waste for free.

Help may come from the Government's announcement of a steep rise in landfill tax - ramping up from the current standard rate of £24/tonne for active wastes (those that give off emissions) to £48/t in 2010/11. This will bring a large number of recycling opportunities into economic viability and, hopefully, help stabilise recyclate markets.

Labels: landfill tax, recycling

WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) has launched the Recycling @ Work scheme to help Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs)* find ways to recycle their waste. There is an advisor in each of the English Regions plus, N Ireland, Scotland & Wales.

This is great news as it can be extremely difficult for small companies to find cost effective collections - mainly because the amount of waste is too small to make it worth the while of recycling companies dispatching a wagon to get it.

I've always thought that a good solution would be to deliver waste collections at a business park level rather than firm-by-firm, so on one day the same wagon could pick up, say, cardboard from dozens of units on the same round, saving time, fuel and money. Someday I will find a business park owner who wants to give it a go.

* as a rule of thumb, an SME has less than 250 employees and is not part of a larger group of companies.

NOTE: The WRAP Website is down at the time of writing so links may not work... Update - now working fine!

Labels: recycling, SMEs

The home page on the Terra Infirma website proclaims "waste is a verb, not a noun". This was a little catchphrase I dreamt up while facilitating Industrial Symbiosis brainstorming sessions. My intention was to get across the idea that most waste has an intrinsic value, but that we choose to waste it.

Unfortunately, out in the real world where environmental legislation applies, this is not the case. Legally, 'waste' is anything a company 'discards or intends to discard'. Once it is designated 'waste', it will not stop being waste until it becomes part of a new product (but not an intermediate). This means that if you make plastic products and you want to buy some clean, pelletised recycled plastic to use as a raw material, you will need a waste management licence.

Even the builders of the 'Brighton Earthship' building, made out of scrap tyres rammed with earth, had to get special permission from the Environment Agency, otherwise the building would be an illegal landfill...

The huge barrier that this puts in the way of recycling has been recognised. The Waste Protocols Project (WPP), run jointly by the Environment Agency and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), is developing standards for recovered product. If material meets the standard then it will no longer be waste and can be traded without further restriction.

In my opinion this process needs urgent accelerating if we are genuine about treating waste as a resource.

5pm Update: I've just heard via edie that Blast Furnace Slag (BFS) will no longer will classed as a waste but a by product. Three million tonnes of this material is produced annually in the UK and it can be used in all sorts of construction products. Very good news indeed.

Labels: industrial symbiosis, recycling, waste