Recycling Policy: Waste Management - Case Study Example

Report on Recycling Policy Name Institution Course Report on Waste Management Introduction Recycling has become an important strategy for waste management in the UK. The use of this strategy has been fueled by the growing waste emission and its dangers to the residents of UK (Jeswani & Azapagic 2016, p. 348). Similarly, UK has intensified use recycling both at national and local level because of its efficient use of resources (Ackerman, 1997, p.25). Based on this information, this report will describe and discuss National and Local policies on recycling in the UK. This paper will provide the background of the policy and discuss both national and local level, and analyze how these policies work at both national and local level. The report will focus on “Towards a Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste” as the national policy while “Household Waste Recycling Act 2003” as the local policy. Definition of waste management and recycling Legally, description of the waste is drawn from European Union Waste Framework Directive (The Sustainability Exchange 2016). Waste is defined as anything that people throw away. Before 2010, generation of the waste in the UK had increased significantly. England alone had wastes of up to 70 million tons in 2000. The intensifying generation of waste as well as the concerns regarding the costs of landfill and availability of the land, has increased the need for waste management. The Sustainability Exchange (2016) defined waste management as all actions and activities needed to handle waste from its origin to the final disposal. According to Morrisseya & Browne (2004, p.298), waste management practices include the collection of the waste, transportation, treating and waste disposal as well as regulation and monitoring. Recycling is strategy of waste management which is highly used in the UK due to its effectiveness. Evison and Read (2001, p.276) defined recycling as a procedure of changing waste into the reusable materials. Recycling of waste helps to save energy,combats climatic change and reduces raw material extraction. Most studies have shown that recycling of waste is a better method of waste management compared to landfilling.( Friends of the Earth, 2002) Background The growth of waste over the years threatens environment safety and needs (Jeswani & Azapagic 2016, p. 346). As such, the United Kingdom has been in the forefront to implement both local and national waste policies which give focus on recycling. Smallbone (2005, p.111) opined that the government believes recycling is a suitable strategy which will see UK become an environmental-sustainable country. Waste management policy, and the legislation to implement it, is continuously evolving in the UK. However, The Sustainability Exchange (2016a) argued that before implementation of any waste policy, the UK’s Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs must have to understand what waste means and forms of the waste streams which it’s likely to encounter. Research shows that countries which have made a step in terms of waste management policy often start by categorizing waste majorly on the basis of their properties and statutory requirements (Fatima, et al. 2015, p.11). One of such policy is The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003. This policy is implemented by the local governments, particular municipal councils (DEFRA 2005). Studies have found that Waste strategies in the UK are largely influenced by the European Union’s actions (The Sustainability Exchange 2016a). the EU’s waste policy is considered a national policy in the UK because it is a member country. Government policy Recently, the United Kingdom has seen the mounting pressure to recycle. As the population increases, land, energy, and resources are exhausted while the volume of waste produced is on the rise. The United Kingdom recognises the need to reduce the quantity of waste being sent to landfills and incinerators and has increased materials recycling rates faster than any other country in Europe between 2000 and 2010 (Vaughan 2013). Despite strategies to trim down material consumption and to encourage greater reuse and recycling of materials, there is still growing concern about future capacity, safety, and cost of landfills and incinerators. The United Kingdom continues to make efforts to develop waste management programs at the national, regional, and local levels. (Vaughan 2013) UK Government holds that recycling is one of the best processes of waste disposal which saves resources and assist in lowering emission of greenhouse gas. Recycling is believed to reduce the wasting of valuable materials and decrease use of the new raw materials, hence lowering air and water pollution and energy usage. The UK government has also intensified campaign about recycling as an important policy for reducing effect of waste and minimizing the use of resources (European Commission 2016). UK has set its recycling country target which drives its waste policy towards a sustainable environment. In 2008, based on EU directive, the UK set a target of 50 percent for the recycling of the municipal waste consisting of paper, plastic, glass and metal, and a target of 70 percent for the demolition and construction waste to be fulfilled by 2020 (European Commission 2016). How National policy works at local level The national policy in the Uniytred Kingdom is aimed at redyce, reuse and recyclke. This is vital in ensuring that the wates are ewffectively managed. The policy enures that the way the waetes are handled is clearly regulated in order to avoid the incidences of litter being thrown around. The United Kingdom is still a member of the European Union and the National policy Regarding the wasrte recycling is tailored top meet the requiorements of the European Union in terms of the water management. The EU Waste frasmeworek provides an important Directive regarding the disposal of the wastes (Song, Wang & Li 2013, p.93). At the national level, each of the wates is categorized into a certain group in order to ensure effectiveness during the management process. The different categories of the wastes is dependent on their contents. In order to ensure that there is efficiency in the management of wastes, the government has put in place various regulations which are aimed at ensuring that the process is successful. The legislation is also aimed at ensuring that the national policy is implemented to the local levcel. The governmemt is in charge of provoding licences and permits to various stakeholders who are required to apply.This includes the local authorities as well as the other organizations that deals with the mamanfememnt of wastes. Funding at the national level is provided by the governmn et as well as the European Union. This is through the Europoean Union Regiopnal Development Fund. The implementation of the nationsl policy is usually carried out in consultations with the other stakeholders. This includes the local autrhorities as well as the local organizations. Resource minimizing implies to use of exact resource for production without leaving a room for wastes (Gary 2011, p.45). For instance, if a dress maker cuts fabric for making cloth, it is the few waste that can be taken back to industry for recycling. Bulkeley et al. (2005, p.12) claimed that the government and local Authority has sensitized manufacturing companies to enhance quality control by minimizing the number of defect batches by intensifying their inspection in order to prevent high number of wastes. The national government partners with local companies to help in the recycling of the waste. Kingsnorth Waste Management is one of the companies which have been partnered with UK government to recycle waste in the UK. The national policy alos encourages the improvement of quality of the recycled materials as a means of managing the wastes.This is effective in terms of ensuring athta stronger market for the recycled products is developed. The stronger quality is effective in ensuring that the products can compete effectively in the local as well as the international market. Information about the quality of the recycled products is usually provided iun order to ensure that the clients are able to make their purchase decisions (2005, p.12). A quality action plan is also in place at the nationsl level and efforts are being put in place to emnsure that it is strengthened so as to improve on the process. The business are increasingly encouraged to take responsibility for what they maker. This involves the regulations that have been put in place under the EC legal requirements. Penalties are alos imposed at the national level for the organizations that do not comply with the regulations. Local policy Similarly, to the national policy, in 2003, the government of UK also adopted a local waste policy “The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003’ to help in reduction of waste that had highly increased in early 2000. DEFRA (2005) argued that this policy mandated the local authorities within England to separately collect not less than two separate recyclable parts of family waste products. The local authority means the municipal councils who will be charged with the duty of implementing this policy through the environmental department (City of London 2014). The collection, separation, recycling is done so that the authorities can have connected wastes together for recycling. Over the years, there have been calls to increase parts of waste to be separated to more than seven. According to DEFRA (2005), Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 operates only in England and Wales. The London Borough of Croydon is part of the South London Waste Partnership, alongside the Boroughs of Sutton, Merton, and Kingston. These boroughs all combine to manage recycling and landfills. Recyclables and waste materials from Croydon are managed in a different way than in many other boroughs. For instance, dry recyclables, such as cans, paper, cardboard, glass, plastic bottles, and textiles, are sorted at the curbside. The dry recycling is then “managed directly by their collection contractor and does not go through the contracts awarded by the Partnership” (What happens to your recycling and composting, 2015). The London Borough of Croydon is currently working on reducing the amount of recyclable materials that go into the borough’s landfills. The borough has adapted two financial strategies to ensure that these initiatives move forward: a Landfill Tax and a Landfill Allowance Trade Scheme (LATS). The objective of these financial drivers is to reduce the quantity of Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) being sent to landfills (Garcia, Clouder, Hall, & Clancy, n.d.). The landfill tax and the LATS are both to ensure that the residents of the Borough use more recyclable products and to manage them properly. The landfill tax was increased to £80 per ton on April 1, 2014, which was an £8 rise from 2013. The tax will continue to increase the prices of disposing in landfills a luxury instead of a necessity. This is strategy has not been publically released .The increase in tax will make leading waste producers to look for alternative and cost effective waste disposal methods (Croydon Council, 2012). The LATS restricts the amount of waste companies can dump to the borough’s contracted landfills and this allowance decreases each year. Local strategy Waste exchange is one of the main strategies that is being used at the local lecvel tro ensure the effective management of the wastes. This is an important strategy that is being used as a sresult of the policies that were developed at the national level. According to Jeswani and Azapagic (2016, p.352) contended that waste exchanges have highly been encouraged in the UK. Waste exchanges to where waste product of the first process is turned into a raw material of the subsequent process (Inglezakis & Moustaka 2015, p.312). of Waste’ is also carried out through zero waste. The approach is to get rid of the waste from their source all the way to supply chain system with a quest to generate no waste. Sensitization of the members of the public is a lso a local tsrtaegy that is being used for the purposes of enhnscing the process of managing the wastes. This involves the provison of information to the stakeholders regarding the treatment of the waste products. This is vital in ensuring that incidence of littering as well as wring methoids of disposal are avoided. The legislations at the national as well as the local level are effective. This is attributed to the proper management of wastes that has been seen since 2010. However, more need to be done in order to improve on the relatiuonship between the national and loavl level. Conclusion Recycling is fast becoming a significant strategy for waste management in different countries of the world. In the UK, the report has established increasing generation of waste as a result of growing population and economic growth has intensified the need for recycling. However, UK is one of the lucky countries to have waste policy both at a national and local level to help reduce waste through recycling. Both “Towards a Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste” and “Household Waste Recycling Act 2003” was adopted in the same year in UK’s not only to help the country curve the danger of wastes but also to assist in minimizing the use of the resource. These policies have majorly enhanced recycling performance of the UK, and the county is today ranked as the most made a step toward creating a sustainable environment through the re-use among companies and individuals. Bibliography Ackerman, F. (1997). Why Do We Recycle? Markets, Values, and Public Policy.London: Island Press. Act 2003, DEFRA, London. Braungart, M. & McDonough, W.( 2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Bulkeley, H, Watson, M, Hudson, R &Weaver, P 2005, Governing municipal Waste: towards a City of London( 2014) Planning a sustainable future for the City of London: Waste Strategy DEFRA 2005, Guidance for the Waste Collection Authorities on the Household Waste Recycling European Commission( 2016) .Waste: Review of the Thematic Strategy on the prevention and Evison, T & Read, A.D 2001, Local authority recycling and waste – awareness of publicity Fatima, F., Catarina,A., Isabel, B., Cristina, M & Carlos, A 2017, Assessment strategies for municipal selective waste collection schemes. Waste Management, vol.59, pp.3-13. Gary, D 2011, Waste Management Practices: Literature Review, Dalhousie GOV.UK(2014) West Legislation and regulations. Available at Read More