Because of global warming, pollution, diminishing forests, and a limited supply of natural resources, people are becoming more aware of the importance of protecting the environment. Waste in the environment affects the air, water, land, animals, plants, and humans. When we use the environment as a waste dump, we take away land from wildlife, pollute the environment, and deplete natural resources. One way people are doing their part to protect the environment is adopting the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Waste Program. The 3R program reduces the amount of garbage going into landfills thereby protecting and conserving our environment.

Reduce: People reduce by purchasing items that are durable and last a long time. By purchasing long lasting products with very little packaging, you will decrease the amount of waste entering a landfill. Other ways of reducing waste include:

- Buy products that do not require a lot of energy and resources to manufacture. Look for products that contain environmentally friendly packaging.
- Reduce car use by riding your bicycle, carpooling with friends, walking, or taking the bus.
- Composting is a great way to dispose of kitchen waste. It is healthy for the soil and less waste will go into the landfill
- Turn off lights that you are not using and use energy efficient light bulbs.
- Turn off the taps when brushing your teeth.

Reducing will help with conservation efforts and decrease landfill waste and energy use. Reducing results in less pollution and a cleaner environment. It also helps conserve natural resources.

Reuse: You can reduce waste by reusing products. Reusing methods include repairing damaged items, donating items to a worthy cause, or finding another way to use them. Some reusing tips include:

- Use cloth grocery bags instead of plastic bags. They can be used repeatedly.
- Use reusable lunch bags.
- Metal cans and plastic containers can be used for storing items.
- Donate old clothes, furniture, and toys to a charity.
- Use silverware and dishes instead of plastic utensils and plates.
- Store food in reusable plastic containers.

Another way to reuse is to hire a junk removal service. Except for hazardous materials, junk removal companies will come and remove just about any type of waste. This includes furniture, appliances, electronics, and construction refuse. Many junk removal businesses donate items to charities, repair items, and recycle.

Recycling: This process involves making new products out of old products. This means potential landfill waste becomes a new product. You can protect the environment by buying products that contain recycled materials. Many of the things we use every day are recycled. Recycled products include: paper towels, toilet paper, paper bags, beverage bottles and cans, milk cartons, and much more. Most products have the recycle label on the package.

Many towns and cities have recycling programs. Some places even have mandatory recycling programs. Junk removal companies are actively involved in reusing and recycling. These companies are very aware of the public’s concern for the environment so they make reusing and recycling a big part of their business. Make sure you ask a junk removing company how much they recycle. You will feel good knowing that not all of the junk you are getting rid of will end up in a land fill.

Reducing, reusing, and recycling helps lessen our impact on the environment and benefits the community. With the help of environmentally conscious companies such as junk removal companies, we are decreasing the amount of waste going into landfills. By participating in the 3R program, you will feel good knowing that you are doing your part to leave a healthier planet for your children.

It is important for individuals to be mindful of what is in the trash. That way, the environment can be better protected. If you are looking for a junk removal and rubbish company located in the GTA please visit us at: Garbage Removal Toronto.

Wasteful ways

The UK has a colossal national wastage but as Recycle Now – the organisation that encourages us to think before we bin – is keen to stress, this could easily be reduced: ‘Whether it’s vegetable peelings, coffee jars, shampoo bottles or food waste, there are lots of items we can recycle.’ In fact nearly two-thirds of all household rubbish can be recycled which would save energy and raw materials and avoid waste going to landfill.

Most councils run kerbside collections for paper, glass, plastics and cardboard. Civic amenity sites (your local tip) can also accept many other materials for recycling. ‘If you’re not sure what your council offers, go to their website and tap in your postcode to see what, when and where you can recycle in your area,’ says Recycle Now.

Of course while recycling can help save materials and energy, cutting down on waste in the first place is even better. That’s why the big supermarkets are working with the government and manufacturers to strip away the layers of unnecessary packaging. They’re doing an aisle-by-aisle, product-by-product review of their ranges. And it’s working. In 2008, one supermarket in particular cut own-label food packaging by 25 per cent, removing 47,000 tonnes of excess packaging. ‘In 2009, they’ve committed to reduce this by a further five per cent’. Good news for the environment and our purses – this mega retailer is reinvesting the ?10 million saved on packaging into lowering prices.

‘Recycling is a success story,’ stresses Recycle Now. ‘In the UK, recycling rates are increasing and it’s making a real difference, so let’s keep a good thing going.’

It’s easy being green

Put a bin in your bathroom to collect (rinsed-out) shower gel and shampoo bottles as well as cardboard tubes from inside the loo rolls. If you’ve got a garden, get a compost bin! Teabags, eggshells, vegetable peelings and shredded paper can all go in with your grass cuttings. About one third of the food we buy gets thrown away and most of this could have been eaten. For tips on storage and tasty, money-saving recipes for leftovers, visit the Love Food Hate Waste website. Choose reusable shopping bags and keep them by the front door so you remember to take them to the shops. By keeping a cotton bag folded up in your handbag or coat pocket, you’ll always have a bag when you need one. Could you refill rather than replace? Laundry detergents, coffee and hand wash are all available as refills, which cuts back on packaging and saves you money. Editing your wardrobe? More than half of the clothing that’s thrown away could be recycled. Charity-shop the good stuff and put the rest in a textile recycling bank – log on to the Recycle Now website to find your nearest one.

Raj has been writing articles online now for quite a while. He writes about many subjects and you can check out his latest websites on the Shark Cordless Sweeper and the Rinnai Tankless Water Heater

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

Renewable Energy Assurance Ltd., a part of the clean energy organisation known as the Renewable Energy Association, administers the Scheme, and has chosen 2 independent Certifying Bodies to appraise plants fairly against the standard.

A Panel with an independent Chair controls the Scheme and its rules, and makes sure that it’s working in the best interests of the users of biofertiliser, that it protects the environment and guarantees human, animal and plant health.

The Biofertiliser Certification scheme has been set up to provide guarantee to customers, farmers, food producers and shops that biofertiliser produced from anaerobic digestion processes is safe and of a high quality.

Biofertiliser is the name adopted for quality digestate materials produced when anaerobic digestion processes break down organic material left over from food and farm processes. By certifying the digestate materials produced by the AD process against a severe standard, plant operators can supply farmers with the mandatory confidence they have to use it safely to their land. In this fashion, farmers gain a valuable source of organic, carbon-free fertilizer.

The Quality Protocol element of the scheme effectively outlines what are sufficient inputs into the Anaerobic Digestion process, assesses if the input materials are treated in a production process that’s as per the PAS110 Standard, assesses whether the digestate produced is as per parameters laid down in the PAS110 standard and outlines the records that have to be generated and kept as proof of compliance to the conditions laid down in the protocol.

One of the primary needs of the protocol is to define when a waste material stops being a waste material and becomes a non-waste product.

A plant desiring to take part in making quality digestate must show conformity with the Quality Protocol and this is usually demonstrated by authentication by an authorized controlling body. ( In Britain and Wales this could be one of several. )

The PAS110 part of the scheme outlines the minimum conditions in which the input materials should be treated and sufficient parameter boundaries for items such pH and heavy metals. PAS is the short name for Publicly Available Standard, while 110 outlines which standard it complies with.

Visit the UK Biofertiliser web site for more information.

With over 500 subscribers to this blog we reasoned that some of you my have experience of landfill fires which you may be able and willing to send us.

The research is non-profit making, and your information on landfill fires just might make a difference someday, especially if it put you in danger and the message you send us about it may help others not to make the same mistake!

He’s doing an MSc (Sustainable Waste Management) at the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment at Southampton University.

This is the enquiry he has made:

“My dissertation is on the subject of the “Detection and Treatment of Landfill Fires”

The aim of my paper is to review current ‘good practice’ for avoiding and extinguishing landfill fires by talking to experts around the world and gathering together the best information as a guide for European landfill operators, local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services in the UK. I want to provide a balanced view of ‘what works’ and ‘ what doesn’t work’ for MSW, C&D. Industrial and tyre wastes. The Fire College have said that they would be interested in parts of the dissertation if these can be translated into Guidance Notes.

This is my Wish List of research information:

* Documented / anecdotal reports of landfill fires:
* How were they started – deliberate (in the Third World), arson, spontaneous combustion, lightning, etc
* How were they treated – successes and failures.
* Fugitive emissions information – water and air.
* Geotechnical information – formation of ‘sink holes’, collapse, effect on containment system
* Any academic papers on the subject
* Introduction to anyone who has suffered a fire.

Any help will be most gratefully received and fully acknowledged and I will be very happy to let you have a copy of my dissertation, once it is accepted.”

Can you help? Use the comments form below or email any private communications to info@wastersblog.com

Just when will our society realise that when everyone produces such large quantities of waste, the waste HAS to be processed and disposed of somehow, and somewhere, and that it is unreasonable to expect to send it out of the area in which the waste was created!

In our first case the Surrey County Council Energy from Waste (EfW) facility, which only received planning permission in October 2008, now looks set to face further delays after a successful challenge against its development by the local parish council. Surrey Waste Management’s proposal for the facility at the Clockhouse Brickworks site in Capel, Surrey, has suffered a myriad of set-backs and challenges since the original planning permission, granted as far back as 2002, was overturned.

An official judgment is expected to have been made by the end of February (after this issue has gone to press). The 100000 tonnes capacity facility was intended to be operational in 2012 as part of a PFI-funded deal between Sita subsidiary, Surrey Waste Management, and the county council.

Our second problem waste processing facility in Cornwall has been rejected and new plans must be drawn up, so the problem is really serious for the citizens of Cornwall. The following is an extract from the BBC News item highlighting the problem:

New county waste plans ‘needed’

An alternative strategy for dealing with Cornwall’s waste needs to be drawn up as soon as possible, a council scrutiny committee has ruled.

The call to Cornwall Council comes after plans by waste company Sita for an incinerator at St Dennis were refused two weeks ago.

Sita then withdrew proposals for a waste centre at Scorrier last week.

The council will decide whether to follow the recommendation for a waste plan after elections later in the year.

Cornwall Council’s Environment Policy and Development Scrutiny Committee recommended that a dedicated panel be set up to look at alternatives.

The committee’s chairman, independent councillor Mark Kaczmarek, said: “It is essential that Cornwall has a clear way forward to deal with its waste.

“Our remaining landfill is running out. Far too much time and money has been wasted over the last few years and no solution to Cornwall’s waste disposal has been created. Cornwall Council must make this issue a priority.”

The full council will decide whether to follow the recommendation for a waste plan after it holds its elections in June.

County councillors voted 20-to-one on 26 March against Sita’s bid to build a waste-to-energy incinerator in the county. Planning officials had advised the council to grant the application.

The £117m waste-to-energy plant would have handled all of Cornwall’s waste – an estimated 240,000 tonnes of waste a year which would, in turn, have generated power for thousands of homes across the county. More here.

In Merthyr Tydfil, the funding will be used for a door-knocking campaign to encourage more households to recycle their waste and help Wales become a greener, more sustainable country. The council reported a 26.2% municipal waste recycling and composting rate in 2006/07.

The remainder of the £800,000 is expected to be used to support plastics recycling in Wales and develop “Zero waste places” – although full details have yet to emerge.

The move comes ahead of the launch of the revised Welsh Waste Strategy for consultation next month, which will set out a new framework for governing waste across the principality.

Jane Davidson, minister for the environment, sustainability and housing, said: “We all have a responsibility for our environment and to reduce Wales’ ecological footprint. A huge part of this is reducing the amount of rubbish we send to landfill. This is no longer sustainable environmentally or financially. I am delighted to be supporting this new scheme to help Merthyr households with their recycling.

“The more we recycle and the less we throw away into landfill the greater our impact will be as individuals in guarding our environment.

“It is important that residual waste is managed in the most sustainable way and that the waste we produce is progressively reduced over time. Then, perhaps, in the more distant future we can contemplate true ‘zero waste – or not producing any waste at all,” she added.

Mike Thomas, head of environmental services for Merthyr Tydfil county borough council, welcomed the funding, which he said would help to boost participation in recycling. More at LetsRecycle.

Source: New Civil Engineer Magazine

England is too slow at reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and could face European Union (EU) fines as a result, the government’s public spending watchdog has warned.

The National Audit Office’s Managing the Waste PFI Programme report accuses the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) of being too slow to react when in 1999 the EU ordered member states to cut by 50% the amount of biodegradable waste they send to landfill by 2013.

It added that although 18 new PFI waste schemes worth £1.6bn are underway, local authorities had experienced delays in completing deals and bringing the projects into operation.

Auditor General Tim Burr said: “Defra is doing a lot to accelerate the programme of new waste treatment facilities being procured through private finance.”

“But, at the rate at which projects are being delivered, England risks missing the 2013 EU landfill reduction target, leaving the UK open to the possibility of fines.”

** End of NCE report **

The Waster says: The situation has the potential to deteriorate quite rapidly now for the UK’s PFI award programme. Many contracts have been delayed by the credit crunch which has meant the unexpected renegotiation of terms for loans between PFI providers and their banks when the banking system suffered so heavily in autumn 2008.

A number of PFI Contracts have been due to start since the summer, but still await award, and their programmes (which include building all the new waste processing facilities essential for the UK to meet the UE targets) must necessarily be put back.

The Greater Manchester PFI is just one example of the delays witnessed and was reported by the Wastersblog just after Christmas, yet there is still no news of award.

The government says the Planning Act 2008 will enable decisions on major infrastructure projects in areas such as energy, aviation, road and rail transport, water and waste to be taken much more speedily than under the current system.

Under the Act ministers will set out National Policy Statements detailing national infrastructure priorities and the decisions as to whether to allow individual projects to go ahead will then be taken independently by a new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).

The government will set out a timetable to set-up the IPC and consult on the detailed regulations and NPSs to implement the new system in the New Year.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears said: “Now that the Planning Bill has been given Royal Assent we can begin to create the faster, fairer planning system we need to reduce our fossil fuel addiction and build up a new generation of renewable energy infrastructure sources like wind power. Many low carbon power sources will now get faster approval, and the country could save £300m a year.”

Planning Bill minister John Healey added: “The new Planning Act 2008 will bring about real culture change for deciding the future needs of our national infrastructure. Importantly it will also give the public three chances to get their views on proposals across instead of one.”

But countryside campaigners the CPRE expressed doubts about how well the Bill will work in practice. Paul Miner, CPRE’s senior planning campaigner commented: “We have monitored the Bill closely throughout its passage through Parliament. Some of it is sensible. But we doubt that its centrepiece – an expensive, unelected, unaccountable commission taking big planning decisions – will work in practice.

“There is a grave danger that this new commission will be seen merely as a promoter and a rubber stamp for highly damaging infrastructure projects imposed without proper debate. It will be interesting to see who steps forward to be a commissioner on this new body, given the challenges it faces.”

The government launched the recruitment process for the position of IPC chairman in October. Shortlisting will take place early next year with interviews in spring and appointment in early summer.

…along with new environment and transport bills

Susanna Gillman, PlanningResource, 27 November 2008

A raft of other legislation that will impact on planning was passed last night along with the Planning Bill.

The Climate Change, Energy and Local Transport bills have also gained Royal Assent.

The climate legislation makes the UK the first country in the world to adopt legally-binding carbon emission targets.

Under the Climate Change Act, the government will have to adhere to five year carbon budgets and will be required to provide annual reports on its progress towards meeting the budgets.

Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: “The UK is the first country in the world to introduce a legally-binding framework to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Setting the 80 per cent target was the easy part: now the work really begins. Government, communities, businesses and individuals need to work together to bring about change.

“The Energy and Planning Acts will be instrumental in reducing carbon emissions, removing barriers to enable industry to invest in important new infrastructure, and giving individuals and communities the incentive to use energy more efficiently and generate their own heat and energy.”

Meanwhile the Local Transport Act 2008 will help bring all modes of transport together, by strengthening the role of the Passenger Transport Authorities – to be renamed Integrated Transport Authorities (ITAs) – and by enabling new ones to be established.

These will help major urban areas outside London to improve coordination of the road network and public transport.

The existing six Passenger Transport Authorities will be renamed ITAs from early in the new year. They will take on full responsibility for local transport planning across their areas.

The Act also creates the opportunity for local areas to review their existing arrangements, and to propose reforms including enhanced powers and boundary changes.

More at UK Government.

It is aimed at both public and private sector waste practitioners and has received strong support to a high level in the Government. It delivers a strong message about UK policy, promoting sustainable design, resource efficiency and reducing climate change.

The guidance covers a wide variety of waste facilities, from small community and municipal sites such as compost units on estates, to larger sites such as Combined Heat and Power facilities. The aim of the guidelines is to outline key design principles, the design process, best practice in design and how best for waste professionals to consult the public.

Although the final decision for waste facilities will ultimately lie with the local authority this guidance should assist with providing the tools for both the public and private sector waste management professionals to make the best decision at every stage in the design process.

For further information about the guidance or to obtain a free copy of the guide visit Defra’s website.