July 22 — The misconceptions among consumers of what terms like bio-based and biodegradable mean pose challenges for companies putting labels on their products and their packaging.

“There are two huge misconceptions,” said Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute, at the recent Bioplastek conference in New York.

“Eighty-five percent of consumers think that bio-based/renewable also means biodegradable, and 60 percent think biodegradable products magically disappear when you throw them away,” he said. “So the message has to be clear on the package and/or your website wherever you expect the consumer to look.

“The challenge all companies will face will be finding a way on the packaging to convey their message, especially when people are buying the product, not the packaging,” he said. “It is confusing to consumers and it is going to get more so as many people don’t understand what those words really mean.”

Part of the blame for the confusion must go back to the companies because many company messages focus on product features, not the consumer benefits, he said.

“Companies say things like biodegradable, made from corn, or made from renewable resources, instead of talking to the consumers about the benefits” of the packaging, Mojo said.

“Those are features, which are just factual statements about the product or service, but it is not the reason customers buy,” Mojo said. “Companies need to focus more on the benefits the material and packaging are bringing to their customers because a benefit adds value to the customer, and it is the reason customers will buy.

“Focus on talking about benefits that can appeal to consumers and concepts that are easy to understand,” suggested Mojo. Among the examples he cited were messages such as: recyclable with PET bottles, reduces carbon footprint, reduces oil use by 3 million gallons of gasoline.

“Companies need to use clear messaging that is supported by data and do it in a small space,” he said. “That is clearly a challenge, but the more specific you are in your claims, the better off you will be.

“Don´t tell consumer the product is green,” Mojo said. “Tell them that it is greener than X because ….” He also suggested that companies use their packaging to direct consumers to a website that can answer their questions.

In addition, companies should question and verify claims by companies supplying them with materials or goods.

“Trust but verify,” said Mojo, “because greenwashing is more prevalent now than ever.”

Specifically, he pointed to a foodservice manufacturer that claimed its product was compostable and 100 percent renewable when it actually contained 52 percent petroleum-based polypropylene.

“The cost to your organization to verify material claims will be a small percentage of your total product cost and it will be worth avoiding a potential embarrassment,” Mojo said.

He also suggested that companies be particularly wary of biodegradable additive claims, saying that there is “very little data to support that additives will degrade.”

To read the full article visit Waste and Recycling News.

Between 1.1 and 1.75 million tonnes of plasterboard enters the waste stream each year in the UK, which is not only a waste of resources but also, potentially, an environmental problem.

Scotland’s environment watchdog is hoping to encourage more businesses to increase the amount they are recycling, by confirming that waste plasterboard which has been processed to the correct specification, is no longer classified as waste.

If gypsum comes into contact with biodegradable waste in landfill, toxic and smelly hydrogen sulphide gas is produced. However, if producers separate it for recovery and recycling, it can then be used to replace virgin gypsum in the plasterboard, cement and soil conditioner markets.

To promote the market for quality gypsum recycling, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has taken the position that where waste plasterboard is processed in accordance with BSI PAS109:2008, it will no longer be regarded as waste.

The recently published BSI PAS 109:2008 “Specification for the production of recycled gypsum from waste plasterboard” specifies minimum requirements for the recycling process itself. It covers the selection, receipt, handling of inputs, specification of product grades and the storage, labeling, dispatch and traceability of the products that are produced from that process.

BSI PAS 109:2008 compliant gypsum which has been recycled to the correct specification and is to be used for plasterboard manufacture, cement manufacture and as soil conditioner, will no longer be regarded as waste by SEPA. This means the subsequent storage, movement and use will not be subject to the requirements of waste legislation, meaning it does not need to be transported by a registered waste carrier or accompanied by a controlled waste transfer note.

Kenny Boag, SEPA’s Head of Waste Policy, said:

“SEPA supports the responsible processing of waste materials into high quality products as part of achieving a Zero waste society. SEPA’s policies on the disposal and recovery of gypsum from plasterboard will reduce pollution from landfilling and will also facilitate the recycling of this valuable resource.”

Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, said:

“We are delighted that SEPA has adopted the BSI PAS 109:2008. Scotland has a vibrant building industry and SEPA is sending strong signal to industry that it takes the issue of construction waste very seriously.”

To take advantage of this position the local SEPA team must be contacted and a demonstration of compliance with PAS109 must be provided. BSI PAS 109:2008 covers the selection, receipt, handling of inputs, specification of product grades and the storage, labelling, dispatch and traceability of the products that are produced from that process.

Processors and users are not obliged to comply with these terms, but reprocessed gypsum that is not BSI PAS 109:2008 compliant will remain classified as waste.

The full position is available under the category “regulatory guidance” – click here.

Wednesday 26th May, The Source Conference Centre, Sheffield

Find out more and register FREE as an individual member @ www.sorp.org

Attend and listen to presentations on:
 Winning Commercial food waste business – How hard can it be?
 Collection – Performance and Efficiency in Partnership
 Turning Waste into Opportunities
 Creating valued products from your waste/resource
 Delivering Advanced Biological Treatment Processes
 Quality Compost the Cost and Value- The Choices Facing Operators
 Using ‘waste’ resources for soil benefit
 The sensitivities of the agricultural market using recyclate
 Using organic resources – A farmer’s view

A few of the companies already booked to attend include:

ADAS, CO2 Sense, Entec UK, Enterprise Plc, Envirolink NW, Environment Agency, Northumbrian Water, Scottish Water Horizons, Tanks & Vessels, Yorkshire Water , Wessex Water, WRAP.

To book your place please just complete and return the attached booking form to fax 01924 257455 or visit www.aquaenviro.co.uk

Global building solutions provider CEMEX is forming a partnership with the Waste Recycling Group (WRG) to produce Climafuel, an renewable fuel derived from waste, for use in cement making at the Rugby cement plant.

Last year, CEMEX submitted applications for permission to build a Climafuel manufacturing plant either at Southam or Malpass Farm in Rugby. Should planning permission be granted by Warwickshire County Council (WCC) at one of these locations, CEMEX’s agreement with WRG means that the plant would be built and operated in partnership with WRG, and the resulting fuel supplied to the cement plant.

This is welcome news as UK MBT Plants are being built which will remain risky investments unless and until a market develops in Refuse Derived Fuel like this SRF. The aim ultimately will be to produce an SRF which will be saleable for use in any boiler, but the Waster understands that for now any SRF in the UK must be classed as a waste still – and that means that stringent Waste/Waste Incineration Directive type rules still apply to the emissions from any site which burns it.

As one of the UK’s leading waste management and energy recovery companies, WRG brings to the partnership the necessary expertise and experience in the manufacture of solid recovered fuel (SRF) from residual household, commercial and industrial waste. The Climafuel plant would utilise mechanical biological treatment (MBT) technology which is widely used in mainland Europe with over 80 operational facilities, mainly in Germany, Italy and Spain. Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), the Spanish construction and services group and WRG’s parent company, brings a wealth of experience in implementing solutions utilising a range of MBT processes and technologies.

CEMEX has demonstrated the significant benefits the use of Climafuel provides in displacing traditional fossil fuels and reducing emissions. By diverting waste from landfill, the manufacture and use of Climafuel can also help local authorities to meet the stringent targets set by the European Union for reducing the volume of waste going to landfill. The use of Climafuel will further reduce the plant’s consumption of fossil fuels, such as coal, and thereby help to achieve climate change objectives.

If permission for such a plant is granted by WCC, it could make a significant contribution to the county achieving its landfill diversion targets.

Neville Roberts, CEMEX’s Technical Director, commented: “CEMEX had always planned to involve a waste management specialist in this project and in WRG we have one of the leaders in this activity in the UK and Europe. The use of Climafuel represents a ‘win-win’ situation and this new partnership will deliver tangible benefits environmentally and commercially.”

Andy Ryan, WRG’s Development Director, said: “WRG has a strong strategic focus on providing solutions for local authorities as they seek to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill, as well as improving performance on waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.

“This partnership represents an important extension to our offering. Climafuel would be manufactured to CEMEX’s tight specifications and this will produce a solid, clean and non-hazardous alternative fuel which generates valuable energy from material that cannot otherwise be recycled.”

12-03-2009

The German trade association for mechanical biological treatment (MBT) has refuted claims that the technology has not proved effective and popular in the country.

Michael Balhar, manager of the Association for Material Specific Waste Treatment (ASA), told www.letsrecycle.com that MBT – which comprises a sorting facility and some kind of biological treatment – was “still alive and in the best of health”, and that there were some isolated problems with it.

His comments come after Mechanical Biological Treatment MBT company MVV Umwelt claimed in late 2008 that MBT had not always worked when it was used in Germany and that energy-from-waste was increasingly a more attractive option for councils and waste management companies (see letsrecycle.com).

Mr Balhar pointed towards the 48 plants currently “successfully” operating in Germany using variations on MBT technology to pre-treat up around 25% of the country’s municipal solid waste as proof of its success.

And, he outlined a number of advantages that the technology offered, including “lower investment costs in relation to waste incineration plants”, and that, in Germany at least, MBT plants had a “smaller projection period” than incinerators.

Mr Balhar explained that MBT was particularly effective in allowing different materials within residual waste to be treated in different ways according to their properties.

He cited the examples of using anaerobic digestion to produce biogas from organic material, while dry materials such as paper and plastics could be prepared as a solid recovered fuel which could result in reduced use of fossil fuels.

Mr Balhar acknowledged that, as a “young and innovative” technology, MBT had faced some difficulties in Germany, but said that a German Federal Environment Agency study in 2007 had shown that “existing problems could be solved to [a] large extent and reduced clearly”.

Explaining that many of the problems had centred on the use of anaerobic digestion, he said however that the “MBT plant operators mastered the challenges placed against them well”, and said that questioning the technology was “not justified”.

He said that MBT had potential to be rolled out across Europe, explaining it was of “great interest to our European neighbours.”

“If one doesn’t consider the very ambitious German requirements and limit values as standard, relatively small investments are necessary to realise the EU provisions and guidelines all over Europe quite rapidly,” he said. More here.

Tyre bales at Pevensey

It will be obvious to our Wastersblog readers that the disposal of vehicle tyres is a real headache, for the waste management industry, and as motorists we are all feeling the pinch from rapidly rising tyre disposal costs.

Certainly, the last time I bought a new tyre, the garage added several pounds to my bill for disposing of the old one.

However, a number of landfill operators have been using tyres for leachate drainage within landfills for some years as an engineering material, and they have found that using tyres as drainage layers in landfills provides adequate flow capabilities, at close to zero cost for their leachate drainage. However, manhandling individual tyres to stack them efficiently on site is a tedious, dirty, and time consuming task, and this fact alone has probably done a great deal to limit tyre use uptake. Whole and granulated tyres have been used for this purpose.

That was for whole tyres, as far as we are aware, just about the only use available in landfills.

Since WRAP published a British Standards Institution (BSI) and has produced a Publicly Available Specification, PAS 108, in collaboration with the tyres reprocessing industry, a whole new range of uses has opened up, from baled tyres.

Almost overnight, baled tyres have become an engineering product with standard bale sizes and shapes, and most important of all, clear design strength data.

Designers and purchasers can now use the structural and drainage characteristics provided from the research done for the PAS, and incorporate tyre bales into designs, just like any other proprietary geo-synthetic material.

In short, providing a specification for producing compact tyre bales of a consistent and verifiable quality and dimension, opens up a new and potentially huge market for waste tyres.

The method re-uses tyres, reducing the demand for the primary aggregate materials used in the past.

The PAS 108 specification can be adopted by suppliers for producing tyre bales such that potential customers will be assured that they are procuring a construction material of consistent and verifiable quality.

Furthermore, the core of this document addresses the production, handling, storage, transport and placement of standardized tyre bales, the dimensions and properties of which are standardised and described in this PAS. So go find out more at the Landfill Site Tyre Bales page here, and you will also find the contact details for one of the first suppliers.

* Mark Milner, industrial editor
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 11 2008 00.01 GMT
* The Guardian, Tuesday November 11 2008

Paper being recycled

Britain’s paper recycling strategy is under increasing strain after a collapse in waste prices in recent weeks, according to a leading industry organisation.

Britain lacks the capacity to handle the rising amount of paper being recovered for recycling, and its dependence on exports has left it vulnerable to a rapid price collapse, the Confederation of Paper Industries said yesterday.

Far Eastern buyers had been snapping up about three-quarters of Britain’s exports of paper for recycling, but demand from the region has almost disappeared recently, the CPI said.

“With no obvious signs of Far East buyers returning to the market soon there is a serious possibility that storage of recyclables may end up being a high-risk strategy with huge costs to those requiring storage, including the taxpayers through local authorities,” the CPI said in a statement.

“The worst-case scenario is that some material collected for recycling could go to incineration or landfill,” CPI recovered paper sector manager, Peter Seggie, said.

The UK collects about 8.6m tonnes of paper and board for recycling every year but UK paper makers can only handle 4m tonnes, resulting in dependence on export markets, primarily the Far East and Europe, to take the remainder. More …

The UK government’s Defra funded New Technology Demonstrator Programme (NTDP) features in many of the events. The NTDP sets out to provide councils and staff from the local authorities with the opportunity of seeing new technologies for waste processing in operation, and for the lucky chosen few operators the opportunity to show off their technological prowess in developing these plants commissioning and operating them.

Information being gathered and publicised about the new technologies in the NTD Programme is playing a vital role in informing the discussions on a national scale.

Some recent conferences have been: