BBC: "Facebook bin of shame encourages students to recycle"

Link to BBC web site

"Everything the students throw into their bin is caught on camera and automatically uploaded to Facebook as part of an environmental challenge.

"If there is anything in there that could be recycled, they will lose points and slide down the league table of participants. Worse still, they could be shamed by their friends. Student Alice Morley explained:

"Sometimes we get caught out. If you're really tired, you think, oh well, it doesn't matter."

"One of the university's psychologists, Dr Rob Comber said,

"When we turn 18, we haven't got those people around us who guide us into making the right decisions on issues like sustainability. BinCam helps to change the behaviour of a group, which might otherwise be unaware of the consequences of their actions."

Evening Standard: "We'll create green spaces for all Londoners, says minister"

Link to Evening Standard

"Communities in London were today promised powers to protect or restore green spaces for recreation and wildlife.

"Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

"We want children to get out into the natural world. It's good for their health, and it helps them to learn. So we'll be removing the barriers to schools taking children on school trips and teaching them outdoors."

"Today's White Paper is the first on the natural environment in 20 years. But critics will argue that the plans come as councils are slashing funding for parks, and some introduce charging for recreation areas."

Review of Mechanical and Biological Treatment (which rather ignores incineration issues of the residual waste)

Waste Management World
"MBT in Europe: There’s life in the old dog yet"

Link to 'Waste Management World'

"For decades, mechanical-biological waste treatment (MBT) has competed with incineration in the more industrialized countries of the world. Although incineration has generally been favoured by the politicians, uptake of MBT in these developed countries nevertheless continues. For example, in the UK at present, more MBT than conventional thermal treatment capacity is being installed.

"In Britain, responsibility for waste disposal is vested primarily at county level. Local authorities decide which residual waste treatment method shall be adopted, and they are also in charge of accomplishing the mandatory targets of the EU Landfill Directive - in this, Britain drastically differs from the other 24 EU Member States, where national legislation is paramount. As a result, in Britain, the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS), similar to the concept of ‘carbon trading’, has been implemented. The outcomes are awaited with great interest on the continent. 

"A dozen high-grade MBT systems are under construction and in the pipeline in England, most of them using aerobic decomposition technology."

8 June, Radio 4: "Dust, soil, refuse, filth, sleaze, slime, smut!" (No, it's not 'The Archers')

Thinking Allowed

Wednesday 8 June

4.00-4.30pm, BBC RADIO 4

"Laurie Taylor presents a special edition of 'Thinking Allowed', recorded with an audience of the public at the Wellcome Collection's exhibition on dirt.

"Dirt is dust, soil, refuse, excrement, bacteria, filth, sleaze, slime, smut – how easily the word changes its meaning, from the physical to the moral. It is this fascinating relationship and threat, which dirt seems to pose, that is explored in the Wellcome Collection's exhibition, Dirt: The Filthy Reality Of Everyday Life.

"Laurie and a panel of experts explore the meaning of dirt, its relationship to order, and how hygiene and the mass generation of dirt have become such potent symbols of civilisation. He is joined by anthropologist Adam Kuper, writer and cartoonist Martin Rowson, and historian Amanda Vickery, to discuss dirt and why it provokes such fear, loathing and, occasionally, desire."

Link to video and exhibition details

("Caroline, is that David up to his neck in the slurry tank? Oh no, Joe Grundy's slipped in as well.)

Channel 5: "How Do They Produce Compost from Domestic Waste?"

This plant near Poole in Dorset takes in 30,000 tonnes/year of 'black-bag' waste. The organic component is separated and then composted. 

The Poole plant also takes 20,000 tonnes/year of food waste. In total, about 25,000 tonnes/year of compost in produced.

Link to Channel 5 video
(item starts just after 6 minutes in)

"Robert dons protective clothing and breathing gear to visit a recycling centre in Canford, near Bournemouth. This state-of-the-art facility transforms 30,000 tonnes of rubbish into rich compost every year. Compost normally takes a long time to prepare, but this facility speeds up the process. After just eight days, the compost is ready to be turned over – using a gigantic tractor with spinning blades. A few weeks later, the compost is ready to serve as ordinary garden mulch."

BBC: "Britain's e-waste illegally leaking into West Africa"

Link to BBC web site

"In Britain each year, we throw away a million tonnes of electronic waste - enough to fill Wembley Stadium six times over. So what happens to our broken TVs and computers – our e-waste – once we have dumped it? Raphael Rowe reports from Ghana.

"The campaign group 'Environmental Investigation Agency', which has attempted to track e-waste from the UK to West Africa, said:

"There needs to be a lot more enforcement, but there also needs to be a shake-up of how we handle electronic waste in the UK and our waste needs to be much more closely monitored than it ever has been."

Click for BBC iPlayer

Harrow Times: "Harrow Council approves plans to bring [more] recycling to flats, as rates hit 50 per cent"

Link to web site

"RECYCLING rates in Harrow have hit 50 per cent, as plans to bring the service to flats are approved.

"A grant of almost £400,000 will pay for blue bins for 8,000 flats previously left out, and Harrow Council hopes all homes will be included by the end of March next year."

---

[The North London Waste Authority is only planning for 50% recycling by 2020. Yet Scotland expects 70% by 2025, on the way to "Zero Waste" by 2050.]

LB Lambeth: "Earn rewards for recycling with Recyclebank"

Click for Lambeth web site

"Lambeth residents are the first in London to be able to participate in the Recyclebank scheme, which has been introduced by the council to boost recycling levels and reduce the amount the borough spends disposing of waste.

"Residents who sign up earn points every time they recycle. The points can then be used for a fantastic selection of rewards."

BBC: "Thirsk waste firm fire 'was spontaneous combustion' "

Link to BBC web site

"A fire at a waste management depot in North Yorkshire was the result of spontaneous combustion, the fire service has said.

"Peter Hudson, from the fire service, said:

"Basically you get the breaking down of organic materials by the bacteria, that creates the heat, and if there's a bit of insulation... that will burn and you end up with spontaneous combustion, and a small fire starts which leads to a bigger fire."

Recycling Tragedy

LocalGov: "Recycling incentive schemes questioned by new report"

Link to LocalGov (and to the report)

"Financial incentive schemes to boost recycling in London could undermine waste prevention messages promoted by borough councils, a new report has warned.

"The London Assembly environment committee has called for a more comprehensive evidence base to determine long-term benefits of the popular schemes,which enjoy the backing of both government ministers and the mayor, Boris Johnson."

Daily Telegraph: "Ben Fogle swims through plastic to save oceans"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The television presenter has joined forces with Sir David Attenborough to help make a new film about the growing threat of plastic to the wildlife of the ocean and ultimately the human food chain.

"The explorer, who first became interested in marine pollution after rowing across the Atlantic, travelled to Sri Lanka to see blue whales in the wild."

Saturday 21 May: Willesden Green Fair

BBC: "Climate e-mail reviews 'leave science sound'."

Link to BBC web site

"Reviews, headed by Lord Oxburgh and Sir Muir Russell, found that the [University of East Anglia] episode did raise questions about the conduct of climate science, and about universities' compliance with Freedom of Information Act legislation.

"But, they said, individual researchers had not tried to subvert the scientific process, and the fundamental picture of a planet warming under the impact of fossil-fuel burning was basically unchallenged.

"The government agrees, saying: 'we find no evidence to question the scientific basis of human influence on the climate'."

Euro-plea for better targets

"At least 500,000 new jobs would be created in Europe if countries recycled 70% of their waste, says a study 'More Jobs, Less Waste', produced by Friends of the Earth. This is the recycling rate already achieved by Flanders in Belgium.

"The EU current recycling target of 50% by 2020 will mean no overall increase in jobs, according to the research, as a reduction in waste levels is predicted by 2020.

"The report also shows that recycling creates around ten times more jobs, per tonne, than sending rubbish to landfill or incineration.

"Previous research for Friends of the Earth [here] showed that the EU currently buries or burns at least €5.25-billion of recyclable materials every year. Recycling that waste would save the equivalent of 148 million tonnes of climate changing emissions, equivalent to taking 47 million cars off the road.

"Friends of the Earth Europe’s resources campaigner, Dr Michael Warhurst said:

"Our research shows that a 70% recycling target would create more than half a million new jobs by 2020, a significant contribution towards the 3 million green jobs that President of the European Commission José Manue Barroso has called for by 2020."

"Despite the economic, environmental and employment benefits of recycling more, the European Commission has up until now failed to set high enough recycling targets for Europe. European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik has stated that resource efficiency is one of his priorities, so now he must not waste the opportunity to make it a reality.

"Europe must stop throwing valuable resources - and the potential jobs that come with them - in holes in the ground or sending them up in smoke in expensive incinerators."

---

The report comes as the European Commission is reviewing its approach to waste and recycling.
(Click image for details.)

Friends of the Earth Europe is proposing that the EU adopts higher recycling targets, and stops landfilling and incinerating materials that can be recycled.
(Click image for Powerpoint file from last year.)

“Creating an EU recycling society: It’s not (just) implementation”:
talk given in June 2010
www.foeeurope.org/activities/waste_management/Warhurst-IGBE-Jun10.ppt

26 May 2011: Mayfair Conference Centre (funny, it's in Bayswater)

Link to 'Recycling and Waste World'
(as with WesternWorld, MedievalWorld, and RomanWorld,
but it was cut from the finished film)

"The potential of anaerobic digestion (AD) is unquestionable – estimates suggest that 18% of the UK’s total gas demands could be met by renewable gas, and up to 48% of its residential gas demands. The hope is that the new announcements on the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) at 6.5p/kWh for biomethane injection into the grid, guaranteed for 20 years, will further encourage investment into this sector.

"The industry now needs to look at working together to encourage the best use of biogas for meeting the UK’s targets, including the huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion, which the foundling coalition government promised [definition: 'a deserted or abandoned child of unknown parentage'].

"Support for this growing industry has never been better, so now is the time to get involved. This important conference [aren't they all?] addresses the issues surrounding Developing UK Biogas, and aims to provide the information, direct experience and industry knowledge to enable delegates to move their business plans forward.

"For example:

• Optimum methods for waste collection to ensure constant and consistant feedstock
• Understanding government support mechanisms – FITs, ROCs and the RHI – and their implications
• Permitting and planning – getting it right to ensure positive acceptance
• The emerging AD framework and what this will mean for the industry
• Developing funding mechanisms appropriate for a developing sector
• Encouragement of digestate markets
• Gas to grid injection and vehicle fuel production
• The impact of localism and what this will mean for decentralised energy.

"Developing UK Biogas features top speakers and industry experts who will be examining these and other key issues, in the light of the government’s on-going waste strategy review and AD framework plans. To ensure you are up to date with the latest developments in the increasingly important AD industry, ensure you are at the industry’s longest established and leading conference."

The Public Relations Fight-back from the Waste Industry!

Link to Proteus (PDF document)

"A specialist environmental communications 

and issues management consultancy"

"MICHAEL BUERK. Tony Robinson. Stephen Fry. All TV personalities. All intellects (Baldrick aside). All trusted by the public. And, as such, all perfect to lead a pro-incineration campaign.

"At least that was the idea touted by one of the government’s most trusted PR agencies last year: Munro & Foster’s brief was to show how the public could be convinced that energy from waste (to use the correct terminology) was an essential part of the UK’s waste reduction mix. Unfortunately, Friends of the Earth (FoE) got hold of the agency’s presentation, and gave it to the press; the ideas were quickly buried deep within Defra HQ (or perhaps burnt?). The incident was unfortunate – not just for red-faced government officials, but for the waste industry generally.

"FoE, meanwhile, has been instrumental in mobilising UKWin (UK Without incineration) with the tools to bring many waste infrastructure plans to a stuttering halt. So, what can the waste industry do to overcome the protesters? And, more importantly, what can they learn from them?"

Wastewatch video in west London

"Waste Watch is a practical charity inspiring and helping people to waste less. No-one likes waste. No-one wants waste. So we help people waste less. For us, it’s about showing what we can all do to change the way we produce, buy, use and dispose of things.

"Our vision is a world where we use resources effectively, live sustainably and make a positive contribution to the environment."

Link to 'Wastewatch' web site

The Guardian: " 'I'm-happy-I'm-green' consensus won't placate our lust for novelty"

Link to The Guardian

"A whole range of sciences is telling us that our high-consumption economies are structured to satisfy only one half of our nature (the selfish, novelty-seeking part). Shouldn't we rearrange things to cater to the other half (altruistic and tradition-loving)?

"Humans truly thrive when they are able to act freely, to master skills they choose to master, and can take non-fatal risks under conditions of ultimate security. A green politics has to be thinking passionately about zones of creativity and innovation for human beings, as well as the constraints and duties of low-carbon living. Otherwise the transforming dimension of our own nature will end up repressed and frustrated."

Edgelands: "Wilderness that is much closer than you think"

BBC iPlayer, week of 15 April 2011

Author: Michael Symmons Roberts, Paul Farley

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9780224089029

Published: 17 February 2011

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd

"Edgelands explores a wilderness that is much closer than you think: a debatable zone, neither the city nor the countryside, but a place in-between - so familiar it is never seen for looking. Passed through, negotiated, unnamed, ignored, the edgelands have become the great wild places on our doorsteps, places so difficult to acknowledge they barely exist.

"Edgelands forms a critique of what we value as 'wild', and allows our allotments, railways, motorways, wasteland and water a presence in the world, and a strange beauty all of their own. Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts - both well-known poets - have lived and worked and known these places all their lives, and in Edgelands their journeying prose fuses, in the anonymous tradition, to allow this in-between world to speak up for itself.

"They write about mobile masts and gravel pits, business parks and landfill sites in the same way the Romantic writers forged a way of looking at an overlooked - but now familiar - landscape of hills and lakes and rivers. England, the first country to industrialise, now offers the world's most mature post-industrial terrain, and is still in a state of flux: Edgelands takes the reader on a journey through its forgotten spaces, so that we can marvel at this richly mysterious, cheek-by-jowl region in our midst."

60-year anniversary of the 'Festival of Britain'

Link to video of 'The Observer' film: 'Brief City' (1952)

"It may have taught the men who are building our cities something. It may have given an impetus to a new approach to building, here in Britain. But for ordinary people, it was fun."

Link to 'The Guardian'

"The Festival of Britain is remembered as an uplifting moment for a nation recovering from war. Iain Sinclair, who visited it aged eight, reflects on the celebrations to mark its 60th anniversary, in our age of corporate sponsorship and Olympics mania.

"The documentary Brief City' brought the Festival of Britain right back to me. The voice-over speaks of 'fierce little boys filled with their secret purposes'. School caps, ties, white shirts, grey shorts. The men are layered in gabardine, puffing on pipes. The women carry large white bags, as they hobble in difficult shoes.

Awkward youths, not yet assigned as teenagers, sport uniform, open-neck shirts, under blazers with badges. They peer intently at pistons and cogs, operated by boffins who wear greasy ties, under long, brown lab coats. This was a festival of doleful enlightenment, self-improving recreation."

Friends of the Earth: Reducing waste, and boosting recycling and reuse

And the web site.

Myth and Reality in Lancashire

Link to 'Global Renewables' web site

"In March 2007, Global Renewables Lancashire Ltd, Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council signed a £2billion, 25-year agreement, to process the household waste of 1.4m people in Lancashire.

"From the moment of delivery, every aspect of the Farington facility takes place indoors, making it the UK’s first fully enclosed waste treatment facility. ... Every part of the process is connected to the air management system, which has been designed so that fresh air is constantly being sucked into the building. Therefore, when the doors are opened briefly to allow trucks access, air flows in, not out, owing to the fact that there is a slightly lower air pressure inside the building."

Link to 'Leyland Guardian' web site

Residents’ fury at ‘broken promises’ of waste firm

"More than 70 people vented their anger about the Farington Waste Recovery Park, which they blame for producing awful smells and plumes of steam, at a meeting on Monday.

"Resident Pauline Clarke said: 'It smells like a swamp, and it’s on my curtains, my bedding, my hair. It’s vile.'

"Colin Bell said: 'I think it’s in the wrong place. It’s too close to houses, and now we’ve got trouble with these terrible smells. I thought it was the drains at first.' "

"Major study into incinerator impact on infant mortality rate set to get started"

Link to further information on 'writemark' blog

"The Health Protection Agency [HPA] is set to make good on a 2003 promise by former chief executive Pat Troop to undertake a study into the long-term health effects of chemical exposure from landfill sites and incinerators.

"Critics have argued that it's not the microscopic particles emitted by incinerators that kill youngsters in these areas, but poverty. It's certainly true that inhabitants of many of the areas in which incinerators are sited are at the lower end of the social scale but Shrewsbury resident Michael Ryan's 'trick' is to show that the death rates in 'middle class’ areas are higher if there's an incinerator lurking in the background.

"Chingford Green Ward is an affluent area of Waltham Forest, and yet it has the second highest average number of child deaths at in the whole of London. It just happens to be close to Britain’s largest incinerator, at Edmonton."

"66% of the residual waste CAN be recycled, so that 90% recycling rate should be possible”

Link to short press release

Link to 'Waste in Wales'

Jane Davidson Environment Minister for the Welsh Assembly Government said:

"My ambition is for Wales to recycle 70% of its waste by 2025, and be zero waste by 2050."