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Contact Front of Pipe:
PO Box 140, Lewes, BN7 9DS, UK.
Email: enquiry
frontofpipe.net
Web: www.frontofpipe.net
Telephone: +44-1273 401 331
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return to: front of pipe homepage > a new cambridgeshire strategy (2006) See also section 5 of the 2006 report on opportunities for local authorities. Cambridgeshire County Council is ready to commit the region to a £800 million contract over 25 years to mechanically process unsorted household waste into contaminated grey compost and 'fuel' for burning. All this waste could be either prevented at source or separated at source for recycling and composting. A decade from now the whole society will be different. European producer-responsibility rules and greater consumer expectations will have cut waste volumes and further increased recyclability above the current 83%. Climate change rules will not permit burning of preventable, compostable and recyclable wastes. The large body of evidence showing that burning mixed household wastes is unsafe will not be ignored. Incineration will be compared not to landfill but to prevention, reuse, recycling and composting. The large capital investments being planned today will be redundant. Fortunately the contract has not yet been signed and this massive waste of public money is still avoidable. Cambridgeshire can save millions by writing and implementing a front of pipe strategy. 1. Prepare for a shift of vision... It's not easy facing change in a waste service with a tradition of managing disposal options in partnership with contractors. Tomorrow's waste service will prioritise options besides disposal, in genuine partnership with the public. The public are interested in both strategy and service delivery. How will better waste prevention, reuse, recycling and composting eliminate the need for burning mixed rubbish? Look beyond government targets towards the long-term elimination of all forms of waste. There are many ways to describe such a vision, if the term zero waste is too challenging. Use the many examples of zero waste strategies as a source of inspiration, without worrying that zero waste is as yet unproven. Sustainability is also unproven but that doesn't stop people trying. A front of pipe waste (or resources) strategy is the way to plan for this vision. 2. ...and a shift in planning A sustainable Cambridgeshire will some day manage a lot of resources, but not a lot of wastes. Should things really become waste just because someone currently doesn't want them? Old concepts such as the waste hierarchy are crucial. The hierarchy has long been mistakenly applied backwards; moving from one unsustainable option (landfill) to other unsustainable options (such as MBT and incineration). A front of pipe strategy applies the waste hierarchy properly; prevent as much waste as possible, then reuse as much as possible, then recycle as much as possible, then compost as much as possible.If this is done the remaining residual waste will not be combustible and mixed waste incineration will end. Carbon-based residual waste (most unrecyclable items) can be source separated and turned into a clean fuel with plasma gasification. Relatively new concepts such as precycling are relevant; precycling means taking action before something becomes waste to ensure it instead becomes a new resource for nature or people. Every product can be precycled and everyone can precycle, even local authorities! Precycling is a suitable basis for redesigning capitalism to take care of the planet (see www.BlindSpot.org.uk). 3. Recruit the public Institutional mental blocks do not resolve themselves. Don't expect help from consultants and waste contractors with a financial interest in perpetuating waste. Genuine regualr public dialogue will challenge old thinking and also bring valuable fresh thinking. Set up a waste forum to review and support your future work on new policy and practice, as promised in Cambridgeshire's 2002 Strategy. Extend the master composters network with new neighbourhood-level networks for prevention and recycling. Start writing a front of pipe waste strategy for the County, which correctly implements the first principle of waste, the hierarchy. Provide relaible, detailed and immediate information through your website and press releases. Build a strong partnership with the public, since their knowledge, enthusism and actions will ultimately deliver your aims. 4. Find funds Waste prevention and front of pipe strategies can now be funded through a range of new and existing budgets. If you can find up to £800 million just to process mixed waste then you can certainly try to find a smaller sum to prevent, recycle and compost the same waste. A further benefit is that front of pipe activities are labour-intensive rather than capital intensive, which boosts local employment, strengthens the local economy and cuts the waste, pollution, energy use, land-use and property-value losses associated with disposal to land and air (burning rubbish). If necessary ask DEFRA (UK government department) to include front of pipe initiatives as a residual waste 'technology' (since all sustainably diverted materials mean lower residual wastes). 5. Promote waste prevention in three directions Promote waste prevention inwards to all regional local authority waste staff and their regular advisors and contractors. Build the dialogue and practical support until all regional local authorities have staff, offices, supplies and projects take part. Combine this work with energy issues (fuels become waste too) to make both issues more interesting. Arrange a competition between these organisations, and the public, to generate suggestions and to see which can cut waste fastest. Promote waste prevention outwards to the public, including other organisations. Use labour-intensive dialogue and engagement, rather than paper-intensive mass marketing. A precycling version of your master composting network would be a good starting point. Use them to recruit groups of neighbours for practical projects with tangible incentives such as compost containers and mulching services. Promote waste prevention upwards to government. You will soon have a lot of good ideas for necessary national and European changes. The County boasts world-class research on waste, including work on a powerful economic instrument to eliminate waste. Find these people and promote their ideas. Help government provide you with the advice, regulations and financial support that you need right now, not what seemed OK five years ago. 6. Deliver more options for more resource streams Hazardous household wastes: There is currently no provision for prevention, reuse or collection. On a recent walk to the park I saw abandoned three car batteries. The Civic Amenity sites provide a patchy service, for example advising me to place brake fluid into general waste. Without serious attention to hazardous wastes at the household level every possible residual waste treatment will remain contaminated. You need further options for bulky wastes; think about neighbourhood level repairs, reupholstering skills and giveaway noticeboards. Don't base all your services on collections. Focus more on genuine aerobic composting, and for small spaces, wormeries. Design your household collection boxes to stack crossways as a totem. Put runners on your kitchen compost bins so they can fit under worktops. Reapply your redundant neighbourhood bring sites to handle a new set of resource streams, leaving the household residual stream suitable for emerging technologies such as plasma gasification and cellulosic ethanol.
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