Original article by Tina Fawcett. An interview giving real and practical advice on reducing the climate impacts of waste.

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 Introduction

How do we make our waste management more sustainable from a climate change point of view? Almost everybody agrees on the value of reducing waste, of reusing it where possible, of recycling, of minimising the waste going for final disposal. No one wants a landfill site or an incinerator next door. But what are the climate change implications of our waste? And what can we do to reduce them?

In this interview Tina Fawcett, co-author of an original study alongside Andrew Hurst, spells out the facts. Above all, she points out how important it is to keep to an absolute minimum the amount of food, paper and other organic matter that goes out with the rubbish.

Keeping food waste in our rubbish to a minimum makes a big difference

The majority of the funding for Tina and Andrew's work came from Biffaward through the landfill tax credit scheme and was part of a larger study. TXU Europe Power and Linacre College Oxford gave the remaining funding.

Why is waste relevant to climate change?

David:   Everybody knows that there's a problem with our throwaway culture. But what is the relevance of rubbish to climate change?

Tina:     You are right about the throwaway culture. The UK Government target of 25% of household waste being recycled by 2000 was nowhere near met, with just 11% being recycled in England and Wales. Total waste volumes have been rising as well. UK household waste has been rising even faster than household numbers and GDP - it is now over 1.3 tonnes per household per annum and rising at over 3% each year. As far as climate change is concerned, and not surprisingly, it almost always takes more energy to make something from scratch than it does to make the same product from recycled materials. So there's an immediate benefit from reducing the amount of rubbish.

UK waste volumes are rising faster than household numbers

David:   And I would guess that there's an even greater benefit if you keep on using it rather than replace it?

Tina:     That's usually the case, except where the product uses a lot of energy during its life and a more up to date one would use much less. But that is a good place to start from.

David:   But I guess that there's more...

Tina:     Yes there is. Obviously the more waste we produce the more trucks are needed to move it around, whether it is recycled or sent to incineration or landfill. And truck movements produce carbon dioxide, which directly leads to climate change.

David:   What about when it reaches its final destination?

Tina:     Well of course there are all the usual problems - groundwater pollution, noise, smell, air emissions from incinerators. And there is the danger from leakage of landfill gas. This is a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane and it can be quite dangerous. However the modern waste industry is much better at controlling methane and it's usually the older sites that need to be watched.

David:   But where does climate change fit in?

Tina:     The problem with landfill gas is that methane is among the more powerful greenhouse gases - 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Methane occurs whenever organic wastes like food, wood or paper decompose anaerobically, i.e. without air. So even though the carbon dioxide that comes from landfills usually comes from within the carbon cycle and so does not directly cause climate change, if methane escapes there is quite a major effect. Indeed methane emissions from landfill sites have been calculated as making up about 3% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.

David:   But this is not a problem if the gases are burnt?

Tina:     Certainly a modern well-managed site is much less damaging than an older one with poor methane recovery systems. But even in a landfill managed to best practice standards about 15% of methane escapes.

David:   So whatever we do, if we send organic waste to landfill there will be some impact on climate change?

Tina:     It's a bit more complex than that as we'll see, but in essence yes, it is always better from the climate change perspective to find another way.

What happens to the carbon in our waste?

David:   Carbon is the main contributor to climate change. Can you talk a bit about how much of it is in the UK's waste stream?

Tina:     The Government calculates that about 400 million tonnes of waste is generated in England and Wales alone each year. About half of this is known as ‘Controlled Waste', which includes municipal waste and much commercial, industrial and construction waste. Non-controlled wastes include agricultural waste, mining and quarrying waste and sewage sludge and dredged spoil. Most of this is returned to the land. My work focused on the controlled wastes.

 Types of waste generated by weight in the UK in 1999 (DETR, 2000)

David:   So what happens to it?

Tina:     In the UK about 58% goes to landfill with 26% being recycled, 1% being incinerated with energy recovery and 15% being disposed of or recovered in ‘other' ways. If you look only at municipal waste, which includes all waste from households, the figures are rather worse. Government figures show that 81% goes to landfill with 8% being incinerated and only 11% being recycled or composted.

David:   What does this mean in terms of carbon flows?

Tina:     You have to think in terms of both stocks and flows of carbon. On an annual basis, about 4.7 Mt of Carbon go into the atmosphere from methane in landfill gas. A further 0.7 Mt results from waste transportation making about 5.4 Mt carbon in total. Against this we can offset 0.19 Mt from electricity generation (which displaces fossil fuel electricity generation) and a further 0.03 Mt from trees in landfill sites ‘fixing' some of the carbon. So about 5.2 Mt Carbon is emitted from UK landfill sites each year.

David:   You said that this is about 3% of UK carbon emissions.

Tina:     That's right. But it is a bit more complex than that. About 6.6 Mt carbon from paper and wood is deposited in landfill sites each year (other forms of carbon such as plastics are not included because they come from outside the carbon cycle and so are just moving from one long-term store to another). You could argue (and indeed the US Government has argued) that this should be set against the methane emissions, making landfill slightly favourable in carbon terms in the UK.

David:   What do you think about that argument yourself?

Tina:     I think that a lot more work is needed before anyone should jump to the conclusion that it is OK to throw things away because it will not have an impact on climate change. For a start there is the energy used in making the product, which is obviously wasted when it is thrown away. It is always dangerous to look at something in isolation. There is no doubt that recycling and waste avoidance are better options.

What should government be doing?

David:   Is there a role for the government and its agencies?

Tina:     We certainly think that it should be a priority for the Environment Agency to strengthen gas collection provisions at all sites so as to bring standards up across the board. The new EU Landfill Directive will be a force for change in this direction.

As for the government, the landfill tax has diverted waste from landfill but - paradoxically perhaps - it has had the most impact on non-organic wastes. So in climate change terms it has not been a strong policy tool. The government needs to think of ways of using the tax to focus on the more harmful waste streams. For instance it could set the tax at a higher level on organic wastes, or it could give rebates on the tax where the operator can show a strong gas collection and burning system.  We certainly see this as an area for attention.

David:   So burning the gas is important. But what about electricity generation?

Tina:     It is certainly a good thing to use the energy from burning the waste to produce electricity. 17% of UK renewable electricity in 1999 was generated from landfill gas. This was almost twice as much as from wind.  However the effect on carbon emissions is relatively minor.

David:   And what about tree planting on landfill sites?

Tina:     Studies have shown that it is possible safely to capture some carbon by tree planting on landfill sites under certain conditions. But while it would again be a good thing to do, the carbon savings are less than with gas combustion and no one should take their eye off that issue.

Advice for industry and the ordinary household

David:   A key issue seems to be minimising landfill gas that escapes to the atmosphere. But the waste industry is only dealing with what the rest of us have given them. What should people who produce waste - businesses and householders - be doing?

Tina:     Most controlled waste comes from industry and commerce - about 85% in total from the commercial, industrial and construction/demolition sectors with only about 15% coming from the municipal sector (which includes households). The same message applies in both cases: we should try to reduce the landfill gas that escapes from landfill sites.

David:   Which means keeping organic materials out of landfill?

Reducing landfill gas emissions is key Photo: Tina Fawcett

Tina:     That's right. Paper and wood are quite easy to recycle or reuse. Food can usually be composted. From the climate change perspective these are key areas to focus on since they are all likely to produce landfill gas over time. This is particularly important because not all the landfill gas will ever be recovered. If you send organic material out in the rubbish, there will almost certainly be a climate change impact.

David:   So recycling and reuse do help. What options are there once as much as possible has been held back?

Tina:     For the ordinary man or woman in the street, the local council takes the decision on ultimate disposal. Organisations like businesses and councils are expected to know the final destination of their wastes and have more choice. They should choose high quality landfill sites with good gas recovery and combustion systems, ideally with electricity generation as well. They should really both be minimising waste, focusing on the organic wastes in particular, and also selecting the most appropriate disposal route.

David:   And what about incineration?

Tina:     Well of course there is a great deal of opposition to local incineration so it is typically not a real option. A Royal Commission report in 1993 suggested that significant savings in greenhouse gas emissions could be made with more incineration but some of the assumptions made have been changed significantly. And of course incineration burns plastics and other fossil fuel based organic material, which is negative from the climate change perspective. More work is needed here as well.

David:   In essence you seem to be saying that we should do all we can to keep organic wastes out of the waste altogether. Whatever can't be recycled or kept back in other ways needs to go to a landfill site with excellent gas recovery and combustion systems. Additional gains can come from generating energy or planting trees but these are secondary in climate change terms.

Tina:     Yes that is right.

David:   Thank you very much.

Where Next?

External links

Freecycle

Where does Oxfordshire's waste go? - To someone else! The Oxford Freecycle (TM) Network is open to all in the local area who would prefer to recycle to others, rather than throw away unwanted items such as unloved bicycles, pianos, fax machines etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OxfordFreecycle/

Oxfordshire Community Action Groups

Tackling rubbish positively!! CAG Oxfordshire is a network of local Community Action Groups (CAG's) working to increase awareness of waste issues and reduce the amount of resources that we throw away. http://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk/  

Waste Watch - promoting action on waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

Environmental Services Association - trade body for the waste management industry.

DEFRA - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK). Information on climate change and waste management.

Friends of the Earth offer a series of papers and other resources on waste issues.

This article came from research primarily funded by Biffaward.

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