Recycling

Issues in Society, Recycling > Waste, Recycling & ReUse > Recycling, Combating a Throwaway Society
Recycling, Re-Using Our World's Solid Wastes > Recycling Wastes to Create Employment

Issues in Society, Recycling, Vol. 114

(Balmain, NSW 2041, Australia; The Spinney Press, 1999)

[Justin Healey (ed.)]

Household Waste Management

Recycling of household waste materials has a two-fold advantage: it reduces the volume of material going into landfill disposal sites and provides income to the council form the sale of the recyclable materials.

Household Waste

The amount of rubbish generated by households has been estimated by analysing the contents of their rubbish bins. However, this method misses waste that has been incinerated, recycled at home or taken personally to a rubbish tip or recycling centre.

A survey in 1989 estimated that across Australia local councils collected an annual average of 370 kg of waste per person. A more recent survey in 1995 of 302 households in Mitcham, South Australia estimated that each year households in that area generated 355kg of waste per person, or about 906kg of waste per household.

The History of Garbage in Australia

6 Until a few generations ago, garbage was not a major problem in Australia, mainly because people didn’t produce much garbage and there were plenty of places to dispose of what was produced. In those days, people didn’t throw out much garbage for a number of reasons.

There was little unnecessary packaging; bottles for milk, beer and soft drink were refilled; food scraps were either fed to the dogs and chooks or composted with garden waste; a lot of rubbish was burnt in backyard incinerators; children’s clothes were passed on to younger children; and broken shoes, toys, tools and utensils were repaired rather than thrown away.

Any garbage that could not be reused, refilled, recycled, burnt, given away or fixed was placed out in small metal bins (called dustbins), collected by “dustmen” and taken to Council landfill sites (“tips”). These “tips” were usually old quarries and , when filled, were often converted into recreational areas.

Garbage Today

Since the 1970s garbage has become a problem, mainly because people have been throwing away more and more garbage. This increase has followed a change to our way of living. Supermarkets have largely replaced the small shops and home delivery, especially for food. This has led to an increase in packaging and the use of non-refillable containers.

There has also been a greater acceptance of disposable products (e.g. tissues), convenience foods and takeaway food and drinks with disposable packaging. With more efficient manufacturing practices, the cost of household appliances and tools has decreased, so that it is now cheaper to buy a new product than fix a broken one.

Fewer people keep chooks, and most pets are fed on packaged pet food rather than family scraps. With concerns over air pollution, many Councils have banned backyard incinerators. All these changes have led to a huge increase in the amount of garbage that each of us throws away.

To make matters worse, the population of Australia has steadily increased. This means that we now have more people, each one producing more garbage than in the past.

To further add to the problem, some Australian cities today are facing a shortage of suitable landfill. Sites in close proximity to major urban areas are becoming increasingly scarce and face opposition by local neighbourhood communities.

Why don’t we just dig more holes or use old quarries to get rid of our garbage once our present landfill sites are filled? The answer is not that simple. People may object to a new landfill site being established where they live, because concerns about smell, litter, pollution and reduced value of their homes. This is known as the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) phenomenon. In addition, waste management authorities have strict regulations concerning the formation and management of landfill sites to protect public health and the environment around the sites. Therefore, it is often difficult and

7 expensive for Councils to establish new landfill sites. Often the only choice for Councils with no landfill sites is to take the garbage from their city or shire to a landfill site in another area. They may have to build a transfer station and truck the garbage long distances to the new site. This may increase the cost to a city or shire of disposing of their garbage.

In the Adelaide metropolitan area, there is not only the problem of a lack of suitable landfill sites but also meeting the cost of environmentally responsible facilities.

The industry Commission reports that incineration of household garbage is a fairly common practice overseas, but is only used to a limited extent in Australia. This is mainly because the cost of incineration of waste is generally much higher than disposal to landfill and because of community concerns about potential environmental damage.

Gargage in Australia

According to the Commonwealth Environmental Protection Agency, Australians generate almost 14 million tonnes of garbage a year. This is about 800kg per person per year. In 1989, the total cost to collect and dispose of all this garbage was about $500 million or about $28 per person a year.

In most capital cities, around 30-40% of all the garbage going to landfill is household and other Council garbage. The rest is made up of commercial and industrial waste and building and demolition waste.

19 Much of the recycling debate has concentrated on the disposal of domestic waste, yet this makes up only one third of the waste to landfill. The other two-thirds are, in about equal proportions, commercial/ industrial and building waste. There have been improvements in these areas, with industries involved in road building and plastering now starting to recycle But little progress has been made in problem areas such as carpets, computers and white and brown goods.

22 The Benefits of Minimising Waste

It conserves valuable resources including: Minerals – used to make many useful materials (e.g., bauxite is used to make aluminium). Energy – use in mining, harvesting, manufacturing and transporting. Native forests – used to make some types of paper and other wood products. Petroleum – used to make plastics. Landfill sites – the life of existing sites is extended.
It saves money. Reducing waste can save money in many different ways. If you waste less, you get more out of what you buy and waste disposal costs are reduced. Businesses become more efficient through cleaner production, less wastage and using fewer raw materials. Household incomes stretch further. Reduced collection and disposal costs benefit the whole community. Indirect costs are minimised, e.g., pollution clean-up.
It reduces environmental impact. For example. Fewer areas need to be affected by resource extraction (e.g. mining), harvesting or solid waste disposal. Less fossil fuel needs to be burnt for energy, thus reducing the release of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Less pollution by reducing the risk of soil and water contamination with nutrients and chemicals near landfills.
Social benefits include: Increased community awareness of waste and environmental issues. Community co-operation and involvement, e.g. in Council recycling schemes. Increased enjoyment of the natural environment for present an future generations. Creating local employment through resource recovery schemes and other industry initiatives.

AVOID!

The most effective way to minimise waste is to avoid it in the first place. The responsibility is both that of consumers and producers of products. Producers can ask whether a particular waste-generating substituted with a more substainable material or can the process be eliminated altogether? Consumers can avoid waste in many ways, e.g. by buying in bulk to avoid extra packaging or refusing carry bags when shopping, particularly if only a small item has been purchased.

Benefits of minimising waste

Less Pollution

26 By reducing waste to landfill especially organic waste, such as food and green waste, the risk of contaminating the surrounding soil and nearby water resources with nutrients and chemicals is reduced.

The amount of landfill gas produced is reduced also and this improves air quality. Conserving resources should result in industry consuming less virgin materials which should translate into less mining and refining of materials and consequently reduced pollution.

Economic

Long Term Costs

The long term cost of past development activity is becoming apparent to the community in the form of polluted air, water and soil.

Land that has previously been filled with wastes has the potential to become and expensive liability for an owner if it is demonstrated that the site is impacting adversely on the surrounding environment. Apart from clean up costs, there may be ongoing monitoring and maintenance costs. There may be incurred until stable conditions are achieved with the landfill. This may take as long as 200 years after closure of the landfill.

Employment and Industry

It is now widely recognised that waste minimisation schemes create employment and provide opportunities for value adding to recovered materials through reprocessing and manufacturing. Although this may be an indirect benefit to councils, the economic well-being of the region is enhanced.

Reduced collection and disposal costs

An effective waste minimisation program could reduce the amount of waste being collected for disposal by 50 to 60 per cent. Savings gained from reduced collection and disposal costs could then be used to offset the cost of waste minimisation programs.

Another important consideration is that many councils are facing rapidly increasing disposal costs due to landfill operators having to take into account all the costs associated with landfilling waste. In the past, these costs were restricted to mainly direct costs such as land acquisition, plant and labour.

A better understanding of the environmental risks associated with landfilling now exists, as well as general community opposition to the loss of amenity landfills are expected to comply with much higher operating standards, including restrictions on the types of waste that can be landfilled.

New landfills tend to be further away from urban areas and consequently higher transportation costs are incurred. The end result of these changes is much higher establishment and operating costs. This trend of rising costs is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Major types of rubbish

29 Clean up Australia’s dedicated army of volunteers collected in 1997 a wide array of garbage. All of the rubbish could have been properly disposed of and much of it can also be recycled.

The main type of rubbish collected by Clean Up’s dedicated army of volunteers in 1997 was plastic! Plastic, in the form of shopping bags, chip and confectionary bags, cups and straws, made up a staggering 35% of the total rubbish surveyed.

Paper and metal /aluminium (each comprising 18% of the total) were the next most common types of rubbish collected, followed by glass (15%), miscellaneous items (11%), wood items (2%) and rubber (1%).

Plastic (including polystyrene) has been the most common type of rubbish collected on Clean Up Australia Day for the past 4 years!

One of the interesting trend this year was the fact that there was an increase in the amount of glass and metal/aluminium collected compared to the previous year (up 4%).

How long does it take to break down?

Orange and banana peel up to 2 years
Cigarette butts 1-5 years
Wool socks 1- 5 years
Plastic coated paper 5 years
Plastic bags 10 – 20 years
Plastic film containers 20 – 30 years
Nylon fabric 30- 40 years
Leather up to 50 years
Tin cans 50 years
Aluminium cans and tabs 80 – 100 years
Glass bottles – 1 million years
Plastic bottles - indefinitely