Transcript National Waste Strategy - The John Ray Initiative

End of Life – Redeeming the Waste Culture
The John Ray Initiative
Cheltenham – 11 February 2006
Waste – Is there a problem?
John Ferguson
Waste and Resource Strategy Unit
Outline
 Introduction:
 What is waste?
 What kind of wastes do we produce?
 Why is waste an issue?
 Unsustainable Consumption.
 The Wasteful ‘Economy’
 Climate change?
 What can we do about it?
What is waste?
 There are complex legal definitions (EU):
 Holders intent to discard?
 Is it hazardous?
 Does it have a market for its re-use?
 Evolving – When does it cease to be waste?
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Essentially any matter in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Single point or multi point (diffuse).
Solid, liquid, gaseous.
Natural or Xenobiotic.
A ubiquitous and inevitable consequence of human activity.
Inextricably linked to patterns of production and consumption.
Closely related to ‘wealth’.
What kind of wastes do we
produce?
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Industrial by products. (solid, liquid and gaseous)
Pesticides. (escaped)
Fertilizers. (escaped)
Sewage wastes (domestic and industrial).
Natural materials (food by products, forestry brash).
By products of consumption. (plastics, paper, metals,
organics, pharmaceuticals – MSW)
 Construction and demolition wastes.
 Automotive (cars, tyres, exhausts, oils)
 Agricultural.
Why is waste an issue? (1)
 Impact on human health:
 Pathogens (sewage, landfill leachates,
agricultural wastes).
 Heavy metals (Pb, Hg, Cr et al…)
 Persistent organic pollutants (POP’s) – PCBs’,
PAHs’.
 Air, water, food, skin contact.
 Infective, Toxic, Mutagenic, Carcinogenic.
Why is waste an issue? (2)
 Economic loss:
 Contaminated land (heavy metals,
hydrocarbons).
 Polluted water courses (oil, eutrophication).
 Contaminated food sources (TBTO).
 Human health impacts.
Why is waste an issue? (3)
 Impact on the Environment:
 Climate change – carbon effects.
 Water, land and air quality.
 Organisms (fish, birds, plant life etc) - Effects on
biodiversity.
 Ecosystem damage – acid rain.
The Root problem –
Unsustainable Consumption
 Per capita consumption continues to increase as global GDP
grows (3-4%) outstripping population growth (1-2%).
 Resource consumption per capita and per unit GDP declining
but overall resource consumption and waste production
continues to grow due to population and economic growth.
 Richest 20% account for over 80% of global consumption.
 6,400 kgoe per capita. 1,600 litres of fuel per capita US.
 Poorest 20% account for less that 2% of global consumption.
 620 kgoe per capita. 31 litres of fuel per capita sub
Saharan Africa.
 Global forested area reduced from 12 sqkm – 7sqkm (19701999).
 Global fish stocks under pressure.
 Oil, water, land and natural resource wars.
 ‘Filling a hole what needs to be made whole!’.
The wasteful ‘economy’
The fundamental paradox:
 Sustained economic growth
versus
 Sustainable consumption of
natural resources
 Can we make it a virtuous
circle ?
– or must it be a vicious
circle?
Consumption
Production
Economic
growth
& prosperity
Straining The Planet
The Pollution Economy
10,000 kg annual
Resource
Input
per
capita
1000 kg
consumption
100 kgs still intact after 6 months
Total UK Raw Resource Usage and
Disposal per Annum (excludes water)
Matter can neither be created nor destroyed
Inputs
Use
Disposal
600 Million Tonnes
600 Million Tonnes
600 Million Tonnes
Public
Sector Goods
Not Measured
‘Lasting’ Products
1%
Other 16%
Minerals
and Rock
50%
Fossil Fuels
34%
Industrial
Goods
Not Measured
Power Transport
& Heat
34%
Packaging 3%
Consumer Goods
10%
30 Million Tonnes Re-use
Air Emissions
34%
Mining Waste
20%
Landfill 15%
Agricultural Waste
16%
Sewage 5%
Recycling 5%
570 Million Tonnes
(Wastage)
600 Million Tonnes
(Raw Resources)
Dredgings 4%
Financial And Resource Economies
(UK) - Euro
State
42%
Business
58%
Non Renewable
Inputs
600m Tonnes
Physical
Purchases
60m Tonnes
GDP
1200 Bn Eu
Savings
Taxes
Debt
Spending
Accumulated
1m Tonnes
Solid Waste
400m Tonnes
Reused
30m Tonnes
Gaseous
Waste
170m Tonnes
GJJ1999
THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
..most escapes to outer space
and cools the earth...
SUN
…but some IR is trapped by
some gases in the air, thus
reducing the cooling.
Sunlight
passes
through the
atmosphere..
..and warms the earth.
Infra-red radiation
is given off by the earth...
Possible causes of recent climate change
 Natural internal climate variability (“chaos”)
 Natural factors that force change
 orbit of the earth around the sun
 energy output of the sun
 volcanic particles in the stratosphere (“dust”)
 Man-made factors that force change
 greenhouse gases (CO2, methane….)
 small particles (cooling effect of sulphates, etc)
GJJ1999
RELATIVE WARMING OF GREENHOUSE GASES
current emissions, effect over next 100 years
Methane
24%
Nitrous
oxide 10%
Others
3%
Carbon
dioxide
63%
Emissions (tonnes of carbon per capita)
6
CO2 per capita emissions and population
(2000)
USA
5
Canada, Australia, New Zealand
4
Russia
Japan
OECD Europe
Other EIT
Middle East
3
2
1
China
Latin
America
Other Asia
Africa
India
0
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
Population (million)
5000
6000
GLOBAL TEMPERATURE – Longer Term
Cycle
GLOBAL TEMPERATURE 1861-2003
TEMPERATURE RISE by the 2080s
winter
summer
°C
G lo b al o ce an circu latio n
C o o lin g
W arm
su rfa ce
cu rre n t
In te rm e d ia te
wa te rs
W arm a nd le ss sa lin e
A n ta rctic c ircu m p o la r cu rren t
A sim p lifie d v ie w o f th e g lo b a l th e rm o ha lin e co nv e yo r b e lt, sh o w in g co o lin g a nd d o wn we llin g in th e N o rth A tla n tic,
wa rm in g a n d fre she n ing in th e so u th e rn h e m isph e re , a nd re tu rn flo w a s a wa rm su rfa ce cu rre n t.
JT H 17-07-2001
27
COP6bis/ SB ST A
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
 Health risks
 Decreased agricultural productivity
 Increased storminess/flooding?
 Human displacement and geopolitical instability.
1900
2000
“Insurance companies estimate that the bill for severe weather in the
1990s worldwide was $480 billion, with the economic… losses over
that period increasing by a factor of 8… If these rates are projected into
the future in comparison to a standard growth in GDP of 3% per year, by
2065, the world would become bankrupt, as damages would outstrip global
earnings.”
Simon Retallack, The Ecologist Report, November 2001
HOW CAN WE REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS?

Reduce emissions - Use less energy
 insulate homes, businesses and factories
 less polluting transport; travel less
 Combined Heat and Power
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Reduce emissions - Generate energy without emissions of CO2
 renewable energy (wind, solar..)
 nuclear power
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Sequestrate carbon – soils, seas, forests, mechanical.
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Reduce landfill of bio-degradables.

Adapt.
What can we do? (1)
 The most urgent need: To close the gap between
developed and developing countries.
 Ensure waste collection services are available to
as large a part of the world’s population as possible
and to raise the quality of landfill sites.
 Develop policy and economic support frameworks
for the waste hierarchy.
 Recognise wastes as a resource.
 Stop the increasing export of environmental
problems to the developing countries.
What can we do? (2)
 Reduce consumption.
 Education – why do we consume so much?
 Global equity.
 Improve production:
 Producer responsibility.
 Raw material taxes.
 Product taxes.
 Disposal bans and taxes.
 De-materialise - Decouple waste from GDP.
 Integrated Product Policy.
 Technology and knowledge transfer.
What can we do? (3)
 Develop national, economic block and global
resource management plans (EU Thematic
Strategy on Natural Resource Use).
 Address the increasing deficit of human
‘happiness’ that is one of the driving forces in
unnecessary consumption.
The Christian Perspective
 ‘The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it’.
 It was our inheritance – this implies stewardship.
 Will judgement in part relate to how we have
treated God’s creation? Revelation 18 and 19.
Thank you for listening.