Zero Waste - a realistic option
"Zero Waste is a goal that is both pragmatic and visionary, to guide people to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources and not burn or bury them. Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that may be a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health" - Zero Waste International Alliance
New Zealand has signed up to this and hits recycling figures of 70% and more in many of its boroughs. Doncaster City Council has signed up to the principle as has Blaenau Gwent here in Wales. Why don't we invite Liverpool to follow suit?
To quote Eifion Williams, of recycling group CYLCH: "This isn't just a form of words, it's a new mind-set that leads to practical action and the steady improvement of figures year on year. Villages in Monmouthshire, with their Zero Waste Village scheme are achieving 50% this year. In the website below is the good news on recycling achievements in Newport. Our Social Enterprise model there creates 54 jobs from recycling in the county and now achieves 27% landfill to recycling diversion there. They'll be we'll be over the 30% next year, it's still early days and the figure is still rising.
"It's time to remind taxpayers in Liverpool that these alternatives exist, they're being ripped off. Liverpool City Council by choosing landfilling at the Hafod are committing taxpayers to £11 per ton transport costs and £35-40 per ton gate fees. The 20-ton trucks they're bringing to the Hafod will be costing at least £1,000 for Liverpool's council. Forty trucks a day = £40,000 times six working days = £240,000. It's big business, the landfill companies make a packet and the councils who opt for these old-fashioned systems rip their taxpayers off for thousands.
"Check out the Newport Wastesavers website below. Their system costs the council in Newport nothing beyond the set up costs. The Wastesavers business model has been externally audited, so it's not just recyclers saying this. It works as follows: We would make £380 profit from recycling the contents of a 20-ton truck and it would cost £380 to employ new people and deploy the systems to collect. COST NEUTRAL, JOB CREATING & GREEN.
"In a nutshell, Newports taxpayers are being given the intelligent, cost-free system whereas Liverpool taxpayers are being massively short changed.
"If the Hafod Action group would like to formally invite Liverpool councilors to see and witness for themselves our 'Cleanstream Resource Centre' in Newport, please feel free and we at Cylch will be very happy to arrange."
www.wastesavers.co.uk
www.cylch.org.uk
posted by hafod @ 1:43 PM
15 comments
15 Comments:
If Newport can create jobs, save money and avoid landfill by recycling creatively, then there's nothing to stop Wrexham doing the same.
Can we invite Cllr Mark Pritchard to visit Newport in his role as Environmental lead member?
That's as well as the Liverpool councillors of course!
We already have such a facility in Sandycroft. Recyclo have their own website. If you search it is easy to find.
The problem is, if you look at the link you provided, there are tables of what can go in which bin.
What happens to the 'NO' column?
Granted, a step in the right direction though.
If Wrexham was prepared to spend millions on a dodgy incinerator, I can see no problem with the council investing in a recycling plant here in Wrexham which will deal with the vast bulk of our waste in an environmentally friendly, cost neutral way. And there are things that can be done to the residual waste to render it inert and ensure that the small amounts still going to landfill don't poison the locals. If we start at that end and tackle packaging at the other end, we should end up somewhere near zero waste... hopefully.
If every LA in the UK signed up to a similar scheme the "NO" items or residue still goes to landfill.Yes it can be treated etc but let's not forget that we are the ones with the big hole to fill. The wagons are already rolling in from all directions.
Our aim is to get Hafod closed not to attempt to educate other LAs.
Hi all,
Zero option is a viable proposition and this is where Wrexham Council planning have got things wrong to the point of criminality.Likewise Liverpool city council is also guilty of the same crime.
I have said it before and I will say it again.Wrexham councillors have been seriously mis-informed over the whole issue of waste disposal by the full time officials criminal disregard for investigating other forms of waste disposal.
Likewise Wrexham councillors have been almost criminally negligent in their duties by rolloing over every time one of these officials bark in their direction.
In any other walk of life a swift reprimand in the shape of job losses would have resulted after the disgraceful episode over the incinerator.
Not so in Wrexham.The inward looking self preservation society that calls itself Wrexham Planning Department simply compounded the issue by advising on a continuation of a landfill site that borders two villages and is only half a mile from a school.
It truly beggars belief that a planning department that exceeds normal levels of incompetence should advise on the continuation of such a project.
Watcher
The Wheezer says "Our aim is to get Hafod closed not to attempt to educate other LAs."
But to close down Hafod we need to change the way councils deal with waste. Personally, I'm not for closing Hafod - nobody should have to put up with landfill sites on their doorstep.
SEREN quote
"But to close down Hafod we need to change the way councils deal with waste. Personally, I'm not for closing Hafod - nobody should have to put up with landfill sites on their doorstep"
Talk about contradicting yourself in one sentence,i don't mean to be rude but piss-off!
Hello Seren,
It is true that no-one wants landfill on their doorstep, there are few communities that have been surrounded by it for as many years as we have. Enough is Enough which is why our aim is to close Hafod now! We will continue to campaign for the rest of the universe once hafod is closed.
Ooops there's a missing word in my last post - it should read...
"But to close down Hafod we need to change the way councils deal with waste. Personally, I'm not JUST for closing Hafod - nobody should have to put up with landfill sites on their doorstep."
Hope that clears that up.
Hello again Seren,
Oooops! My last post at 8.42pm should have read "The Wheezer"
You seem to have your priorities wrong. We need to get HAFOD CLOSED NOW, then continue to campaign for how LACs deal with waste. Have you ever lived with the brunt of landfill, not in theory ie, but in reality? Act now, talk later is the way this campaign is going.
Wheezer, what you are saying is "close Hafod now" and let someone else put up with landfill. Unless we deal with the causes of landfill, we're condemning other communities to put up with it.
That's on a par with Merseyside's "dump it over the border" policy.
Blodwen wrote
No-one should be made to endure this medieval method of waste management, blighting lives and communities all over the country, Hafod is the start of that.
Start? What about Pen-Y-Bont, Rosset, Gowy etc etc.
Hafod, what i am saying is lobbying for change is good and will continue but, change takes time. Meanwhile the tipping at Hafod continues at an alarming rate. CLOSE HAFOD NOW is the priority.
Hi all,
The way Democracy is practiced in the UK is nothing short of a swindle.
The problem being is that the people we vote to represent us are in fact our greatest enemies.
Regards
Watcher
does anyone know what is in otterspool,liverpool's landfill site,especially under the dome area? I am concerned toxic waste may travel through 6 feet of sand that supposedly keeps it in place
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