Recycling - why are homeowners the main targets for this?
Discussion
Why is it that homeowners and private citizens are having the "recycle" message rammed down our throats by the government when homeowners are not the main polluters/culprits? We see messages about "insulate our homes" and "use less energy", when the same message doesn't seem to be going to businesses (just look at the London skyline at night with all those empty, litup buildings...)
(No, I'm not bored. Yes, I am asking daft questions today. No, I can't help it as my brain is mush just now. Yes, I am sorry
)
(No, I'm not bored. Yes, I am asking daft questions today. No, I can't help it as my brain is mush just now. Yes, I am sorry
)The spotlight is now swinging onto construction as well.
I work in the waste industry and all new developments with a value of £300,000 or more have to have a stated declaration in place as to how the waste from the development is being managed and also what decisions were made to minimise waste being produced.
It's a bit "toothless" (EA not enforcing as only just launched) now, but will tighten up in the future I have no doubt.
Most clients are trying to show best practice as well, so are insisting on details of how waste is treated by their builder / contractor as well.
Fines are quite "stiff" for trade waste non compliance (unlimited fine / unlimited jail time for the company directors for a first offence that's convicted in court...)
The law changed towards the end of last year and it's now illegal to collect waste and take it to landfill without sorting ("pre-treating") it first to remove a "reasonable quantity of recyclates" before anything can go to landfill, hence the investment in MRF (material recycling facilities) to sort waste mechanically...these are good, but still not as good as sorting at source into different bins, hence the puch to start with householders first
Chris
I work in the waste industry and all new developments with a value of £300,000 or more have to have a stated declaration in place as to how the waste from the development is being managed and also what decisions were made to minimise waste being produced.
It's a bit "toothless" (EA not enforcing as only just launched) now, but will tighten up in the future I have no doubt.
Most clients are trying to show best practice as well, so are insisting on details of how waste is treated by their builder / contractor as well.
Fines are quite "stiff" for trade waste non compliance (unlimited fine / unlimited jail time for the company directors for a first offence that's convicted in court...)
The law changed towards the end of last year and it's now illegal to collect waste and take it to landfill without sorting ("pre-treating") it first to remove a "reasonable quantity of recyclates" before anything can go to landfill, hence the investment in MRF (material recycling facilities) to sort waste mechanically...these are good, but still not as good as sorting at source into different bins, hence the puch to start with householders first
Chris
Local authorities face massive EU fines if arbitrary recycling targets aren't met, as this in fact means WE face £10s of millions in fines per LA, nobody is keen to miss the arbitrary targets for exporting our neatly segregated waste to Asian landfill sites as ships' ballast.
Odd how the handwringers think that putting different types of their cr-p in different coloured receptacles is actually recycling. Gullibility knows no bounds.
Odd how the handwringers think that putting different types of their cr-p in different coloured receptacles is actually recycling. Gullibility knows no bounds.
Homeowners are not the main target.
As something of an authority on inert site waste recycling - i.e. crushing bricks and concrete - I can teel you the construction industry is being clobbered like never before with the new Defra Site Waste Management Plans which apply to smaller projects, over £300k. All larger sites and projects have had strict re-use and recycling targets for over a decade.
The recycling targets are now set by the EU and fines are not levied at the UK government but at regional level. So the local authority in Hampshire, for example, can;t say "stuff this recycling lark, we'll just send all our rubbish up to Oxfordshire" - all legal waste movements - skips, tipper, grab trucks - now have to be 'logged' into the system. The aim is to close the net on fly tippers and unscurpulous builders, whislt also increasing the rate of re-use and recycling.
As something of an authority on inert site waste recycling - i.e. crushing bricks and concrete - I can teel you the construction industry is being clobbered like never before with the new Defra Site Waste Management Plans which apply to smaller projects, over £300k. All larger sites and projects have had strict re-use and recycling targets for over a decade.The recycling targets are now set by the EU and fines are not levied at the UK government but at regional level. So the local authority in Hampshire, for example, can;t say "stuff this recycling lark, we'll just send all our rubbish up to Oxfordshire" - all legal waste movements - skips, tipper, grab trucks - now have to be 'logged' into the system. The aim is to close the net on fly tippers and unscurpulous builders, whislt also increasing the rate of re-use and recycling.
Digga said:
Homeowners are not the main target.
As something of an authority on inert site waste recycling - i.e. crushing bricks and concrete - I can teel you the construction industry is being clobbered like never before with the new Defra Site Waste Management Plans which apply to smaller projects, over £300k. All larger sites and projects have had strict re-use and recycling targets for over a decade.
The recycling targets are now set by the EU and fines are not levied at the UK government but at regional level. So the local authority in Hampshire, for example, can;t say "stuff this recycling lark, we'll just send all our rubbish up to Oxfordshire" - all legal waste movements - skips, tipper, grab trucks - now have to be 'logged' into the system. The aim is to close the net on fly tippers and unscurpulous builders, whislt also increasing the rate of re-use and recycling.
It seems inevitable that the control freakery and false piety on this sort of thing will spread, just like the plagues of rats from fortnightly bin collections. Sorry to hear about the control freakery being exercised on the construction industry - if it's anything like other whizzo schemes it will be largely unjustified, badly thought out but implemented to the hilt with inspectors and hefty non-compliance fines and the rest. As something of an authority on inert site waste recycling - i.e. crushing bricks and concrete - I can teel you the construction industry is being clobbered like never before with the new Defra Site Waste Management Plans which apply to smaller projects, over £300k. All larger sites and projects have had strict re-use and recycling targets for over a decade.The recycling targets are now set by the EU and fines are not levied at the UK government but at regional level. So the local authority in Hampshire, for example, can;t say "stuff this recycling lark, we'll just send all our rubbish up to Oxfordshire" - all legal waste movements - skips, tipper, grab trucks - now have to be 'logged' into the system. The aim is to close the net on fly tippers and unscurpulous builders, whislt also increasing the rate of re-use and recycling.
turbobloke said:
Digga said:
Stuff about the new Defra Site Waste Management Plans
It seems inevitable that the control freakery and false piety on this sort of thing will spread, just like the plagues of rats from fortnightly bin collections. Sorry to hear about the control freakery being exercised on the construction industry - if it's anything like other whizzo schemes it will be largely unjustified, badly thought out but implemented to the hilt with inspectors and hefty non-compliance fines and the rest.For example, if you shift rubble off site and then buy crushed aggregate in, you're causing unnecessary traffic and - if you can recycle on site - unnecessary use of quarred aggregage.
We did a few figures for the demolition of a typical 4 bed detached property, which is obvioiusly a fairly comment job where either the house is being replaced with one nice big new place or, on a big plot, theres three or four houses going up.
by 6cu yd skips takes 281 litres of diesel
by 8x4 tipper trucks: 160 litres of diesel
by crushing on site with mini crusher: 80 litres (red) diesel
So it's cheaper and environmentally freindly but, typically, lots of builders won't change old habits.
The 'cheaper' bit and common sense element of re-using site materials are fine obviously but there's little genuine environmental reasoning behind a lot of the recycling mantras foisted on us at work and at home. Removing diesel buses would be the priority over diesel lorries, buses stop-start a lot more and that's where the two most genotoxic carcinogens known to science are produced. Then again environ mentalists don't care much for humans so that wouldn't be a consideration.
Edited by turbobloke on Friday 12th September 14:22
turbobloke said:
there's little genuine environmental reasoning behind a lot of the recycling mantras .
Maybe not all of them, but for construction rubble there is.The basic fact is that most counties in the UK are removing more waste rubble from sites than they are delivering recycled rubble (i.e. waste that's been crushed into re-useable aggregate) back to site.
So you have a cumulative build-up of waste in most areas and also an unnecessary use of 'virign' quarried aggreate. Seems made to keep digging holes and spoiling large areas of the countryside and piling-up thousands of tonnes of rubble in urban and sub-urban transfer yards...
Edited by Digga on Friday 12th September 14:26
Made me laugh the other night on local TV they had sent a reporter off to India where loads of waste from Manchester has been dumped and the reporter was roving amongst the rubbish, ironically pulling out an indian set meal for 2 package from tesco/asda!
so that is where the contents of my 4 seperate bins are sent....
Its all b
ks really, the councils dont give a toss they just want another way in which they can charge you and fine you if you dont do it their way, meanwhile they are loading barges up with rubbish to dump in other countries...
so that is where the contents of my 4 seperate bins are sent....
Its all b
ks really, the councils dont give a toss they just want another way in which they can charge you and fine you if you dont do it their way, meanwhile they are loading barges up with rubbish to dump in other countries...Digga said:
turbobloke said:
there's little genuine environmental reasoning behind a lot of the recycling mantras .
Maybe not all of them, but for construction rubble there is.The basic fact is that most counties in the UK are removing more waste rubble from sites than they are delivering recycled rubble (i.e. waste that's been crushed into re-useable aggregate) back to site.
So you have a cumulative build-up of waste in most areas and also an unnecessary use of 'virign' quarried aggreate. Seems made to keep digging holes and spoiling large areas of the countryside and piling-up thousands of tonnes of rubble in urban and sub-urban transfer yards...
Hardly environ mentalism though - just common sense.Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff