Household rubbish less than ten per cent of waste
Keith Parkins | 21.08.2008 15:04 | Analysis | Ecology | Education
Over ninety percent of the waste that is generated is generated by industry and business, less than ten per cent by households.
'We would like to see the VAT regime reformed so that products that have a long life-cycle, or can be easily and cheaply repaired rather than replaced, are made economically more attractive. This would be an important step in turning away from the 'throwaway' consumer culture we currently have.' -- Lord O'Neill
Published on Wednesday morning, a report from the House of Lords Science and Technology select committee has showed that domestic waste accounts for less than 10% of waste.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7570909.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7571637.stm
http://www.parliament.uk/hlscience/
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldsctech/163/163.pdf
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldsctech/163/163ii.pdf
This means that we could reduce to zero our domestic waste and it would make little difference as over 90% of waste is generated by industry and business, and even the little that does flow through households comes from supermarkets through their excess packaging.
As the House of Lords committee recommends, the focus of attention should be on business and industry not households if we are to make inroads into the amount of waste we as a society generate.
The Lords say we need design changes, that products should be designed that they last longer, are easy to disassemble and repair and recycle, that we should focus on waste reduction not recycling, that we need changes in taxation and possibly legislation to force the changes.
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/nat-cap.htm
If households can be criminalised for leaving a wheelie bin lid ajar by four inches, or leaving it in the wrong place at the wrong time, is it not about time industry and business were criminalised for the amount of waste they generate?
We have to move to a zero waste strategy, where we produce zero waste, where the output of one process is the input to another, that everything that ends up at the household can easily be recycled, can be dismantled and repaired, can be broken down into its component parts at the end of its lifetime and what cannot be reused can be recycled. If a process leaves hazardous waste it is replaced by a more benign process or eliminated.
http://www.zerowaste.co.nz/
http://www.zerowaste.org/
http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/
That is not to say we do not do our bit. We too should be minimising our waste, recycling and composting. A situation not helped by local councils like the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, where first they try fortnightly waste collection, then halving the size of the wheelie bins, when what they should be focusing on is recycling, home composting and waste reduction not cutting services in the name of recycling and waste reduction.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7570638.stm
http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/08/statement-to-sunday-telegraph.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406432.html?c=on
reference and background
Anger over smaller bins, BBC South Today, 19 August 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7570638.stm
Richard Black, Call to tackle UK business waste, BBC news on-line, 19 August 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7570909.stm
Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm
Lester R. Brown, Throwaway economy in trouble, Earth Policy Institute, 30 November 2006
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch06_ss4.htm
David Clifford, Rushmoor's Waste Management Panel's recommendations, 10 June 2008
http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/06/rushmoors-waste-management-panels.html
David Clifford, Statement to Sunday Telegraph, 14 August 2008
http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/08/statement-to-sunday-telegraph.html
David Gibbs, If we can’t cut collection we'll halve your bin size, Daily Express, 18 August 2008
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/57315/If-we-can-t-cut-collection-we-ll-halve-your-bin-size
Paul Hawken, Amory B Lovins & L Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism, Earthscan, 1999
Alastair Jamieson Want weekly rubbish collections? Then you must have a smaller bin, say councils, Sunday Telegraph, 17 August 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2571143/Want-weekly-rubbish-collections-Then-you-must-have-a-smaller-bin-say-councils.html
Tom Kelly, The shrinking bins, Daily mail, 18 August 2008
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1046213/The-shrinking-bins-Blatant-councils-agree-weekly-rubbish-collections-SMALLER-bins.html
Keith Parkins, Natural Capitalism, October 2000
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/nat-cap.htm
Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, April 2006
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm
Keith Parkins, Rushmoor wheelie bin madness, Indymedia UK, 11 August 2008
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406432.html?c=on
Tom Peterkin, The £110 fine for overfilling your bin, Telegraph, 3 August 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2493788/The-110-fine-for-overfilling-your-bin.html
Plan aims for zero waste society, BBc news on-line, 11 March 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7289322.stm
Graham Tibbetts, Smaller wheelie bins for weekly rubbish collections, Telegraph, 18 August 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2579039/Smaller-wheelie-bins-for-weekly-rubbish-collections.htm
UK 'must tackle business waste', BBC news on-line, 20 August 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7571637.stm
Ernst von Weizsåcker, Amory B Lovins and L Hunter Lovins, Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, 1997
Published on Wednesday morning, a report from the House of Lords Science and Technology select committee has showed that domestic waste accounts for less than 10% of waste.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7570909.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7571637.stm http://www.parliament.uk/hlscience/ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldsctech/163/163.pdf http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldsctech/163/163ii.pdf This means that we could reduce to zero our domestic waste and it would make little difference as over 90% of waste is generated by industry and business, and even the little that does flow through households comes from supermarkets through their excess packaging.
As the House of Lords committee recommends, the focus of attention should be on business and industry not households if we are to make inroads into the amount of waste we as a society generate.
The Lords say we need design changes, that products should be designed that they last longer, are easy to disassemble and repair and recycle, that we should focus on waste reduction not recycling, that we need changes in taxation and possibly legislation to force the changes.
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/nat-cap.htm If households can be criminalised for leaving a wheelie bin lid ajar by four inches, or leaving it in the wrong place at the wrong time, is it not about time industry and business were criminalised for the amount of waste they generate?
We have to move to a zero waste strategy, where we produce zero waste, where the output of one process is the input to another, that everything that ends up at the household can easily be recycled, can be dismantled and repaired, can be broken down into its component parts at the end of its lifetime and what cannot be reused can be recycled. If a process leaves hazardous waste it is replaced by a more benign process or eliminated.
http://www.zerowaste.co.nz/ http://www.zerowaste.org/ http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/ That is not to say we do not do our bit. We too should be minimising our waste, recycling and composting. A situation not helped by local councils like the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, where first they try fortnightly waste collection, then halving the size of the wheelie bins, when what they should be focusing on is recycling, home composting and waste reduction not cutting services in the name of recycling and waste reduction.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7570638.stm http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/08/statement-to-sunday-telegraph.html http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406432.html?c=on reference and background
Anger over smaller bins, BBC South Today, 19 August 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7570638.stm Richard Black, Call to tackle UK business waste, BBC news on-line, 19 August 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7570909.stm Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm Lester R. Brown, Throwaway economy in trouble, Earth Policy Institute, 30 November 2006
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch06_ss4.htm David Clifford, Rushmoor's Waste Management Panel's recommendations, 10 June 2008
http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/06/rushmoors-waste-management-panels.html David Clifford, Statement to Sunday Telegraph, 14 August 2008
http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/08/statement-to-sunday-telegraph.html David Gibbs, If we can’t cut collection we'll halve your bin size, Daily Express, 18 August 2008
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/57315/If-we-can-t-cut-collection-we-ll-halve-your-bin-size Paul Hawken, Amory B Lovins & L Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism, Earthscan, 1999
Alastair Jamieson Want weekly rubbish collections? Then you must have a smaller bin, say councils, Sunday Telegraph, 17 August 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2571143/Want-weekly-rubbish-collections-Then-you-must-have-a-smaller-bin-say-councils.html Tom Kelly, The shrinking bins, Daily mail, 18 August 2008
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1046213/The-shrinking-bins-Blatant-councils-agree-weekly-rubbish-collections-SMALLER-bins.html Keith Parkins, Natural Capitalism, October 2000
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/nat-cap.htm Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, April 2006
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm Keith Parkins, Rushmoor wheelie bin madness, Indymedia UK, 11 August 2008
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406432.html?c=on Tom Peterkin, The £110 fine for overfilling your bin, Telegraph, 3 August 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2493788/The-110-fine-for-overfilling-your-bin.html Plan aims for zero waste society, BBc news on-line, 11 March 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7289322.stm Graham Tibbetts, Smaller wheelie bins for weekly rubbish collections, Telegraph, 18 August 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2579039/Smaller-wheelie-bins-for-weekly-rubbish-collections.htm UK 'must tackle business waste', BBC news on-line, 20 August 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7571637.stm Ernst von Weizsåcker, Amory B Lovins and L Hunter Lovins, Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, 1997
Keith Parkins
Homepage:
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Yes, but....
22.08.2008 00:10
We can't shirk our responsibilities that easily.
not blameless
blameless - on what basis are you arguing this?
22.08.2008 10:17
Consumers are told we want plastic bags, many of us do not
Consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising, I do not want it
Consumers are told we want cheap food, actually I want good food preferably my own but as I do not own a garden, I avoid supermarkets
Consumers are told we are to blame, no I am not and we are not but you may well be
The Lords are all an untrustworthy bunch but the ordinary person on the street really does care but they are powerless in the face of this rubbish so they are the ones who have been leading the revolution. One part of the country does not use plastic bags, how did they do this? Not with people like you, not the Government and certainly not the self-serving idiots in the Lords
So guess what? many of us are not to blame
your argument sounds very similar to what Ken Livingstone tried to do over water usage in London, he blamed ordinary people and lectured them that they should stop leaving the tap on while brushing or having a long shower meanwhile Thames was losing 915 million litres a day, the regulator, the idiots paid to tell us what they are doing and then do nothing said - enough to fill 366 Olympic-sized swimming pools. He did not do anything about Thames Water and what he did do is a scandal, in London, most of the Victorian pipes in central and East London were bone dry and the problems were with North London, which cannot be fixed with plastic pipes. They replaced perfectly good cast iron pipes with plastic pipes and they do not even know their shelf life, some people predict 30 years. So you take out something that is perfectly OK, why because Thames Water will be picking up a good sum from taxpayers to do it all over again for your children, tell them how great it was, the noise, the plastic and you can even tell them they are not blameless.
correction