The Problem as it Appears

We are surrounded by waste in many shapes and forms. We observe dustbin collections each week and probably witness litter every day. Some of us live close to incinerators, landfills or even Sellafield - Britain's factory for reprocessing nuclear waste. Whether rubbish is being dealt with in an organised way or not, it always represents a blot on the landscape.

Litter

Littering is antisocial, it makes our environment ugly and often poses a danger to wildlife. But did you know it's also illegal under the Environmental Protection Act 1990? Local councils also have the power to appoint litter wardens to patrol and issue £25 fines to litterers - I don't know if any of them are exercising this power - I've certainly never seen a litter warden.

One of the major sources of litter is packaging, especially food and drink containers. Although (under the European Union Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste) the UK aims to recycle 58 per cent of its 8 million tonnes of packaging waste by the year 2001, this is unlikely by itself to make litter a thing of the past. If litter doesn't get cleared up it can hang around for an awfully long time. The Tidy Britain Group has made some estimates as to how long it takes different things to degrade in the environment:

• plastic bottles - indefinitely

• aluminium cans - 80 - 100 years

• tin cans - 50 years

• plastic bags - 10 - 20 years

• cigarette butts - up to 2 years

• orange peel/banana skin - up to 2 years.

Preventative measures

Even though we have reasonably accessible recycling facilities in Britain we still discard a lot of litter that actually is recyclable. It needs to be easier to recycle the waste we generate. Public litter bins with separate compartments for recyclables are one example of a design solution. Some local authorities already have bins with compartments for cans. Imagine the example it would set if every public bin was a mini recycling centre! You could contact your local council recycling officer and ask whether the council has considered this as a design option next time they replace their bins.

A lot of litter from the fast food industry is plastic, paper and card that is contaminated with food, so it isn't suitable for recycling. Making greater use of reusable cups, plates and utensils and minimising the use of single portion sachets of sugar, salt, vinegar etc would reduce waste and litter and work out cheaper in the long run.You may appear a little eccentric taking your own container to a takeaway food shop, or mug to a canteen that uses disposable cups, but that would be an excellent way of getting your point across while saving waste and litter and hopefully encouraging others to do the same. And anyway, is there anyone who actually enjoys drinking out of plastic cups?

On the beaches

Litter is a problem on our beaches too. It creates a hazardous and unpleasant environment for wildlife and humans alike. Every September, the Marine Conservation Society organises a campaign called Beachwatch which involves teams of volunteers not only clearing up litter from our beaches but also recording what type of litter and how much of it was found.

The statistical information is valuable because the major sources of the litter can be identified. The Marine Conservation Society has used the results of their surveys to urge the government to place better controls on the disposal of waste at sea and on land, and to inform and encourage everybody to take responsibility for the wellbeing of our environment.

If you want to get involved with a Beachwatch survey then contact the Marine Conservation Society (see Resources).

Beachwatch 1999 facts

Bad weather over the Beachwatch weekend meant that fewer volunteers surveyed less beaches than in previous years. But these are the facts! 171 beaches were cleaned and surveyed by over 1600 volunteers. 11,618kg of litter was recovered from approximately 92 km of coastline. Four main sources of litter on the UK coastline were identified: tourist and recreational litter (38.6 per cent),shipping waste (2.6 per cent), sewage related debris (13.5 per cent) and discarded fishing gear (11.2 per cent). Plastic items represented over 50 per cent of all debris recorded, as they have done since Beachwatch started in 1993. Cotton-bud sticks remained in the top ten most common items.

Bag It and Bin It

Bag It and Bin It is a national campaign that was launched in 1995 and is supported by many organisations (including the Women's Environmental Network - check out their sanitary - towel disposal bags!). Its aim is to encourage people to stop using the toilet as a dustbin and start bagging and binning items that were previously flushed away Its major focus is on sanitary products, which for decades we have been encouraged by manufacturers to flush away out of sight (and out of mind).

About one third of Britain's sewage is discharged to sea, with little or no treatment. Much of what we flush away enters the sea and is washed up on the beaches later. This includes sanitary towels, tampons, condoms, cotton buds, even syringes - not to mention bacteria and viruses. When sewage is treated inland the bits of debris are screened out and then have to be disposed of. This makes water treatment more complicated and expensive than it needs to be. Flushing our bathroom waste away is not a suitable disposal option, it simply moves the problem along. Sewage can be digested by microbes to make useful, harmless fertiliser (but not if it's mixed with plastic litter or poisonous chemicals). Anything else that gets flushed down the toilet can create litter which is unsightly and potentially dangerous for all users of the beach environment.

Surfers Against Sewage also support Bag It and Bin It. Since 1990 they have campaigned against sewage disposal and toxic dumping at sea. Their campaign has grown and gained momentum and is a great example of how a small group of people with a purpose can really begin to change things. Contact them for more information about what they do and details of their groovy merchandise! (See Resources.)

Authorised disposal of waste

For wastes that do not enter the sewage system, the main disposal options in Britain are burying or burning (incineration). The majority of waste goes directly to landfill. Only a small percentage is incinerated and even then the remaining ash is landfilled. Both methods have associated environmental problems which give us even more reason to reduce the amount of waste we create.We all know that these problems exist. Proposals for new landfills or incinerators are never welcomed by local people who will be affected by such development.

'Nimby' stands for 'not in my back yard'. In the past many local protest groups have said 'not in my back yard' to a variety of schemes which threaten the environment. The term 'nimby' is often used with some derision to describe people who don't want changes on their doorstep. It is implied that these people simply want the scheme or development to take place elsewhere. Many protesters now use the slogan 'not in anybody's back yard'. This better reflects the wide ranging concern that many environmental protesters feel.

Local actions may grow out of local environmental concern but they can also be a trigger for wider environmental consciousness. If the right connections are made we can see and understand the relationship between protesting against an incinerator and avoiding over-packaged goods. If we don't make so much rubbish we won't need to threaten the environment by disposing of it.

Landfill

Each country or region of the world has developed particular ways of dealing with waste depending on local circumstances. Although waste in Victorian towns was often burned, for most of the twentieth century Britain buried its waste in holes in the ground (82 per cent of household waste is landfilled). This practice developed as a result of Britain's geology. This island is rich in many useful minerals and for hundreds of years we have been mimng and quarrying out these minerals and leaving holes in the countryside. Rather than spending money on restoring the land to some kind of normality, mineral companies can turn the space into a rubbish dump.

Landfill has been Britain's cheapest and easiest waste-disposal option. In the past landfills have been poorly regulated and serious problems have resulted. Controls are now tighter - since 1996 the Landfill Tax has served as a financial incentive for local authorities to reduce the waste that they send to landfill. The tax is levied on each tonne of waste taken to landfill so it is in the interests of each local authority to maximise recycling and composting, and to support all waste minirisationprojects. But there is still cause for concern and room for improvement.

The ecological threat of landfill begins with the production of methane. When organic matter such as kitchen and garden waste, and even paper, decomposes underground without air, methane is produced as a byproduct. Methane is a flammable gas and a valuable fuel. When it is allowed to accumulate the gas represents a safety hazard, an explosion waiting to happen. When it escapes it contributes to the greenhouse effect; in this respect it is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Within the European Union 32 per cent of methane produced comes from landfills. The EU Landfill Directive aims to tackle this problem by reducing the amount of organic waste disposed of this way. Our government has set the following targets to reduce biodegradable household waste:

• 75 per cent of 1995 levels by 2010

• 50 per cent of 1995 levels by 2013

• 35 per cent of 1995 levels by 2020.

If we all get used to separating our organic waste at home there is massive potential to develop home and community composting. However, there is a concern that where waste does not get separated at source it will end up being incinerated because of the landfill restrictions.

Another by-product of organic decomposition is a liquid known as leachate. The mixture of waste in landfills means that invariably this liquid contains toxic substances. Batteries containing heavy metals which are thrown in the dustbin and end up in landfills will leak out these poisonous metals and contribute to toxic leachate. Escaping leachate is likely to contaminate groundwater - our underground supplies of drinking water. (Most batteries should be placed in the hazardous household waste containers at a household waste site. The only batteries that can be recycled at the moment are from watches and some calculators and cameras - the jeweller will usually accept these back for recycling because of their valuable silver content.)

While in use, landfills degrade the environment by being ugly and smelly while large lorries carrying rubbish to the site increase traffic pollution. Landfills also limit the options for future use of the land since it may become precarious and give way as the rubbish slowly decays. And who would want to live, work or play above an accident waiting to happen?