End of Life – Redeeming the Waste Culture The John Ray Initiative Cheltenham – 11 February 2006

1. End of Life – Redeeming the Waste Culture The John Ray Initiative Cheltenham – 11 February 2006 Waste – Is there a problem? John Ferguson Waste and Resource Strategy Unit

2. Outline • Introduction: • What is waste? • What kind of wastes do we produce? • Why is waste an issue? • Unsustainable Consumption. • The Wasteful ‘Economy’ • Climate change? • What can we do about it?

3. What is waste? • There are complex legal definitions (EU): • Holders intent to discard? • Is it hazardous? • Does it have a market for its re-use? • Evolving – When does it cease to be waste? • Essentially any matter in the wrong place at the wrong time! • Single point or multi point (diffuse). • Solid, liquid, gaseous. • Natural or Xenobiotic. • A ubiquitous and inevitable consequence of human activity. • Inextricably linked to patterns of production and consumption. • Closely related to ‘wealth’.

4. What kind of wastes do we produce? • Industrial by products. (solid, liquid and gaseous) • Pesticides. (escaped) • Fertilizers. (escaped) • Sewage wastes (domestic and industrial). • Natural materials (food by products, forestry brash). • By products of consumption. (plastics, paper, metals, organics, pharmaceuticals – MSW) • Construction and demolition wastes. • Automotive (cars, tyres, exhausts, oils) • Agricultural.

5. Why is waste an issue? (1) • Impact on human health: • Pathogens (sewage, landfill leachates, agricultural wastes). • Heavy metals (Pb, Hg, Cr et al…) • Persistent organic pollutants (POP’s) – PCBs’, PAHs’. • Air, water, food, skin contact. • Infective, Toxic, Mutagenic, Carcinogenic.

6. Why is waste an issue? (2) • Economic loss: • Contaminated land (heavy metals, hydrocarbons). • Polluted water courses (oil, eutrophication). • Contaminated food sources (TBTO). • Human health impacts.

7. Why is waste an issue? (3) • Impact on the Environment: • Climate change – carbon effects. • Water, land and air quality. • Organisms (fish, birds, plant life etc) - Effects on biodiversity. • Ecosystem damage – acid rain.

8. The Root problem – Unsustainable Consumption • Per capita consumption continues to increase as global GDP grows (3-4%) outstripping population growth (1-2%). • Resource consumption per capita and per unit GDP declining but overall resource consumption and waste production continues to grow due to population and economic growth. • Richest 20% account for over 80% of global consumption. • 6,400 kgoe per capita. 1,600 litres of fuel per capita US. • Poorest 20% account for less that 2% of global consumption. • 620 kgoe per capita. 31 litres of fuel per capita sub Saharan Africa. • Global forested area reduced from 12 sqkm – 7sqkm (1970-1999). • Global fish stocks under pressure. • Oil, water, land and natural resource wars. • ‘Filling a hole what needs to be made whole!’.

9. The wasteful ‘economy’The fundamental paradox: • Sustained economic growth versus • Sustainable consumption of natural resources • Can we make it a virtuous circle ?– or must it be a vicious circle?

10. Straining The Planet The Pollution Economy 10,000 kg annualResource Input percapita 1000 kgconsumption 100 kgs still intact after 6 months

11. Use Disposal 600 Million Tonnes 600 Million Tonnes ‘Lasting’ Products 1% Public Sector Goods Not Measured Dredgings 4% Industrial Goods Not Measured Air Emissions 34% Mining Waste 20% Power Transport & Heat 34% Landfill 15% Agricultural Waste 16% Packaging 3% Sewage 5% Consumer Goods 10% Recycling 5% Total UK Raw Resource Usage and Disposal per Annum (excludes water) Matter can neither be created nor destroyed 570 Million Tonnes (Wastage) Inputs 600 Million Tonnes Other16% Minerals and Rock 50% 600 Million Tonnes (Raw Resources) Fossil Fuels 34% 30 Million Tonnes Re-use

12. Financial And Resource Economies(UK) - Euro Non RenewableInputs 600m Tonnes State 42% Business 58% PhysicalPurchases60m Tonnes GDP1200 Bn Eu Savings Solid Waste400m Tonnes Accumulated1m Tonnes Taxes Debt Reused30m Tonnes Spending GaseousWaste170m Tonnes

13. ..most escapes to outer space and cools the earth... THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT SUN …but some IR is trapped by some gases in the air, thus reducing the cooling. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere.. Infra-red radiation is given off by the earth... ..and warms the earth.

14. Possible causes of recent climate change • Natural internal climate variability (“chaos”) • Natural factors that force change • orbit of the earth around the sun • energy output of the sun • volcanic particles in the stratosphere (“dust”) • Man-made factors that force change • greenhouse gases (CO2, methane….) • small particles (cooling effect of sulphates, etc)

15. RELATIVE WARMING OF GREENHOUSE GASES current emissions, effect over next 100 years Methane 24% Carbon dioxide 63% Nitrous oxide 10% Others 3%

16. CO2 per capita emissions and population (2000) 6 USA 5 Canada, Australia, New Zealand 4 Emissions (tonnes of carbon per capita) Russia 3 Japan OECD Europe Other EIT 2 Middle East Latin America 1 China Other Asia Africa India 0 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 Population (million)

17. GLOBAL TEMPERATURE – Longer Term Cycle

18. GLOBAL TEMPERATURE 1861-2003

19. TEMPERATURE RISE by the 2080s winter summer °C

21. IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE • Health risks • Decreased agricultural productivity • Increased storminess/flooding? • Human displacement and geopolitical instability.

22. 1900 2000

23. “Insurance companies estimate that the bill for severe weather in the 1990s worldwide was $480 billion, with the economic… losses over that period increasing by a factor of 8… If these rates are projected into the future in comparison to a standard growth in GDP of 3% per year, by 2065, the world would become bankrupt, as damages would outstrip global earnings.” Simon Retallack, The Ecologist Report, November 2001

24. HOW CAN WE REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS? • Reduce emissions - Use less energy • insulate homes, businesses and factories • less polluting transport; travel less • Combined Heat and Power • Reduce emissions - Generate energy without emissions of CO2 • renewable energy (wind, solar..) • nuclear power • Sequestrate carbon – soils, seas, forests, mechanical. • Reduce landfill of bio-degradables. • Adapt.

25. What can we do? (1) • The most urgent need: To close the gap between developed and developing countries. • Ensure waste collection services are available to as large a part of the world’s population as possible and to raise the quality of landfill sites. • Develop policy and economic support frameworks for the waste hierarchy. • Recognise wastes as a resource. • Stop the increasing export of environmental problems to the developing countries.

26. What can we do? (2) • Reduce consumption. • Education – why do we consume so much? • Global equity. • Improve production: • Producer responsibility. • Raw material taxes. • Product taxes. • Disposal bans and taxes. • De-materialise - Decouple waste from GDP. • Integrated Product Policy. • Technology and knowledge transfer.

27. What can we do? (3) • Develop national, economic block and global resource management plans (EU Thematic Strategy on Natural Resource Use). • Address the increasing deficit of human ‘happiness’ that is one of the driving forces in unnecessary consumption.

28. The Christian Perspective • ‘The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it’. • It was our inheritance – this implies stewardship. • Will judgement in part relate to how we have treated God’s creation? Revelation 18 and 19.

29. Thank you for listening.