The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Solid waste systems assessment

Solid waste systems assessment
Solid waste systems assessment

Introduction: Wastes are defined in the Waste Framework Directive (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2008) as ‘any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard’. Over the last two to three decades, waste management in the industrialised world has gradually shifted from providing safe disposal of unwanted materials, often by entombing the waste in a sophisticated, engineered landfill, to recovering materials and value from that which is no longer needed through reuse, recycling, composting and energy recovery. In Britain, this shift has resulted in a 71% reduction in the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) going to landfill since 1995. Recycling and composting have increased from almost nothing in 1995 to nearly 45% of municipal waste treatment today and energy from wastes accounts for about a third of renewable energy generated (Defra, 2015a). This has required significant investment in infrastructure as well as sustained efforts to change the attitude of industry and consumers. Recent publications on resource security (Defra, 2012), resource efficiency (European Commission, 2011) and sustainable materials management (OECD, 2012) show that there is a move away from the linear view of resource management (extraction, manufacture, use, final disposal) towards a more circular view in which waste management becomes primarily a resource recovery operation and final disposal is necessary only for those materials from which further value can no longer be economically or technically extracted. Material and value are recovered from wastes through recycling and composting (42%) and energy recovery (22%) with the remainder being landfilled (34%). (Figures are from Defra for 2012/2013 and are for local authority collected waste (LACW) in England.) Recycling accounts for most of this recovery and the rates for the most commonly collected materials (glass, steel, aluminium, dense plastics (e.g. plastic bottles) and paper, card and cardboard) are shown in Table 8.1. Garden wastes are recovered for composting and food or mixed food and garden wastes for in-vessel composting (IVC) or anaerobic digestion (AD). Other materials (e.g. tetrapaks and plastic film) are recovered more rarely. Energy is generally recovered by incineration from mixed wastes, from mixed wastes processed to produce fuels (solid recovered fuel (SRF) or refuse derived fuel (RDF)) for co-combustion or through the AD of biodegradable wastes (usually food waste or mixed food and green waste).

158-180
Cambridge University Press
Watson, Geoff V.R.
a7b86a0a-9a2c-44d2-99ed-a6c02b2a356d
Stringfellow, Anne M.
024efba8-7ffc-441e-a268-be43240990a9
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
Turner, David A.
0542a602-16ce-4aa8-9ca4-9e8d2c72d3c5
Coello, Jon
7192f0a9-5f88-4fa2-b414-67dc9cebb616
Watson, Geoff V.R.
a7b86a0a-9a2c-44d2-99ed-a6c02b2a356d
Stringfellow, Anne M.
024efba8-7ffc-441e-a268-be43240990a9
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
Turner, David A.
0542a602-16ce-4aa8-9ca4-9e8d2c72d3c5
Coello, Jon
7192f0a9-5f88-4fa2-b414-67dc9cebb616

Watson, Geoff V.R., Stringfellow, Anne M., Powrie, William, Turner, David A. and Coello, Jon (2016) Solid waste systems assessment. In, The Future of National Infrastructure: A System-of-Systems Approach. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, pp. 158-180. (doi:10.1017/CBO9781107588745.009).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

Introduction: Wastes are defined in the Waste Framework Directive (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2008) as ‘any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard’. Over the last two to three decades, waste management in the industrialised world has gradually shifted from providing safe disposal of unwanted materials, often by entombing the waste in a sophisticated, engineered landfill, to recovering materials and value from that which is no longer needed through reuse, recycling, composting and energy recovery. In Britain, this shift has resulted in a 71% reduction in the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) going to landfill since 1995. Recycling and composting have increased from almost nothing in 1995 to nearly 45% of municipal waste treatment today and energy from wastes accounts for about a third of renewable energy generated (Defra, 2015a). This has required significant investment in infrastructure as well as sustained efforts to change the attitude of industry and consumers. Recent publications on resource security (Defra, 2012), resource efficiency (European Commission, 2011) and sustainable materials management (OECD, 2012) show that there is a move away from the linear view of resource management (extraction, manufacture, use, final disposal) towards a more circular view in which waste management becomes primarily a resource recovery operation and final disposal is necessary only for those materials from which further value can no longer be economically or technically extracted. Material and value are recovered from wastes through recycling and composting (42%) and energy recovery (22%) with the remainder being landfilled (34%). (Figures are from Defra for 2012/2013 and are for local authority collected waste (LACW) in England.) Recycling accounts for most of this recovery and the rates for the most commonly collected materials (glass, steel, aluminium, dense plastics (e.g. plastic bottles) and paper, card and cardboard) are shown in Table 8.1. Garden wastes are recovered for composting and food or mixed food and garden wastes for in-vessel composting (IVC) or anaerobic digestion (AD). Other materials (e.g. tetrapaks and plastic film) are recovered more rarely. Energy is generally recovered by incineration from mixed wastes, from mixed wastes processed to produce fuels (solid recovered fuel (SRF) or refuse derived fuel (RDF)) for co-combustion or through the AD of biodegradable wastes (usually food waste or mixed food and green waste).

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2016

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 455657
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455657
PURE UUID: 6971a457-d982-4240-92ff-251e3a1da7b0
ORCID for Geoff V.R. Watson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3074-5196
ORCID for Anne M. Stringfellow: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8873-0010
ORCID for William Powrie: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2271-0826

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 30 Mar 2022 16:36
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:41

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: William Powrie ORCID iD
Author: David A. Turner
Author: Jon Coello

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×