Waste and Recycling Overview
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Why focus on waste? • Inefficiency • Lost resources/opportunities • Environmental impact ‐ greenhouse gases & other pollution
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Kerbside waste collection
56% garbage
30% recyclables
14% food scraps and garden waste
Figures are for Victoria for 2005-2006, from Sustainability Victoria. Annual service cost: total $228,797,756 garbage $126,746,180 recyclable $68,926,640 green $33,124,936
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490 kg garbage per house per year 199 kg per person per year
490 kg From 2005 to 2006, Victorians generated an average of nearly 500 kg of garbage per household per year. Each person generated an average of 199 kg per year, which is a 7 kg decrease from 206 kg per person the year before.
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Kerbside recycling 65% paper
28% glass and cans 7% plastic containers
Most of what was being recycled in 2005-2006 was paper, which made up 65%.
Image sources: Plastic bottle: by Whitesheep, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pet20091027.jpg Sprite cans: by My100Cans, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sprite_Cans.JPG Paper: by Environment Victoria Glass bottles: by Xahx, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beverage_bottles.jpg
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Photo source: Environment Victoria
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Plastic Carry Bags • Australians used 3.92 billion bags in 2005 • That’s 3,920,000,000 bags • Approximately 180 bags per person
Photo source: Environment Victoria
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Photo source: plastic bag litter in Karachi from Creative Commons, http://www.flickr.com/photos/zainub/430144883/
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Photo source: www.flickr.com/photos/worldworldworld/3314227532/ and Ron Prendergast, Melbourne Zoo
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An easy solution
Image source: Environment Victoria
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Over�packaging
Image source: Environment Victoria
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Some of the things households throw away
The waste hierarchy 1 Maximum conservation of resources 2 Reusing materials 3 Recycling & reprocessing materials 4 Energy recovery before disposing
5 No conservation of resources
Aim to do things at the top of the waste hierarchy first, and things at the bottom only when you really need to. Avoidance – it quicker, easier and better to avoid the waste in the first place Reuse – if it has been made then it is then better to reuse Recycle – can we turn the waste into something useful? Recover energy – when something can’t be recycled, it can often still have the energy in it recovered, for example by burning it for heat, or composting it to give energy to plants Disposal – needs to be a last resort. We need to start thinking about why we should even make something that just gets disposed of.
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New products delivered to shops
Supermarket
Products consumed at home
Recycling factory Waste packaging (recyclable)
Kerbside recycling collection
Everything that we throw “away” goes somewhere. Someone has to store it or treat it in some way. Where is “away”? Think about where items end up when we throw them “away”. Some of the richest sources in the world of some metals are now old land fills, which were used before recycling was common. Image sources: Cleaning products http://www.flickr.com/photos/xcbiker/454221928/ Supermarket fruit display http://www.flickr.com/photos/elmada/386694324/ Butter and margarine photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikelowe/35843660/ 50s packaging display photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/maddi/173718675/ Doritos photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelb1/3900992895/ Jelly tots photo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jelly_Tots.jpg Polish vodka bottle photo http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jarzebiak_Jan_Muszynski_Lwow_1939.jpg Empty wine bottle http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons /1/16/Empty_Wine_bottle.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empty_ Wine_bottle.jpg&usg=__sUm_77OL2DgmK_tkFn_Ysa8XhTo=&h=3587&w=2445&sz=30 10&hl=en&start=32&sig2=a8LKY00IjAk8OFSKOybarQ&tbnid=cPOBaHN5FkmVuM:&tbn h=150&tbnw=102&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dempty%2Bbottle%26imgtbs%3Dr%26ndsp% 3D18%26as_rights%3D(cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257 Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived)%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18& ei=ZBwBS7mFBoH67APH67TdCg Bin with empty bottles http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QSgaX5uL5NqTMjEzmMMtgw Lego recycling truck http://www.flickr.com/photos/9229859@N02/1277634907/
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