Kate Kelland, PlanetArk 27 Aug 08;
LONDON - Sparked by surging oil, a dramatic rise in the value of old plastic is encouraging waste companies across the world to dig for buried riches in rotting rubbish dumps.
Long a symbol of humanity's throw-away culture, existing landfill sites are now being viewed as mines of potential which as the world population grows could also help bolster the planet's dwindling natural resources.
"By 2020 we might have nine billion people on the planet, we could have a very big middle class driving millions more cars, and we could be in a really resource-hungry world with the oil price climbing and a supply situation in Libya, Russia and Saudi where natural gas is limited," said Peter Jones, one of Britain's leading experts on waste management.
"It is those drivers, those conditions, which will encourage the possibility of landfill mining."
In Britain alone, experts say landfill sites could offer up an estimated 200 million tonnes of old plastic -- worth up to 60 billion pounds at current prices -- to be recovered and recycled, or converted to liquid fuel.
As many oil analysts predict oil prices will stay above US$100 a barrel, waste experts in America, Europe and across Asia have been conducting pilot projects to recoup old plastic and other waste materials.
Prices for high quality plastics such as high-density polyethelenes (HDP) have more than doubled to between 200 and 300 pounds (US$370-560) per tonne, from just above 100 pounds a year ago, according to experts in the waste industry.
With this in mind, leaders of the world's waste management industry are planning to come together in London in October for what is being billed as the first "global landfill mining" conference.
"Once plastic is in a landfill site, it pretty much sits there doing nothing -- and the beauty of that is that you're able to go back and recapture it in the future," said Peter Mills, a director of waste and recycling company New Earth Solutions, who is scheduled to speak at the conference.
"There are some really buoyant prices around because plastic is all manufactured from oil, so as the raw price of oil goes up, every commodity derived from it goes up accordingly."
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the amount of household rubbish thrown out across the world is expected to rise to about 3 billion tonnes a year by 2030 from 1.6 billion tonnes in 2005 -- or about 1 kg (2.2 lbs) per person per day in 2005.
Many of the world's rich countries send about half of that trash to landfill, but the OECD projects that rate will fall to 40 percent by 2030 as governments promote recycling -- of materials such as metals, glass and paper -- or incineration to generate heat or electricity.
"Over a period of a very long time -- many decades -- we have had a policy of burying whatever we can in landfill sites -- so there are valuable resources in those sites," said Steve Whatmore, of Orchid Environmental, a waste and recycling firm.
"And wherever there are valuable resources, there is always the temptation to investigate whether its worth recovering them. The logic is sound, but the practicalities are complex -- and you have to balance those out with the commercial viability."
FROM "SCAVENGING" TO "LANDFILL MINING"
Landfill mining -- digging in dumps for valuable materials -- is hardly a new concept, and already viable for some.
Images of poor, often homeless people scavenging waste to sell from landfill sites in Asia and South America have already provided evidence there is money to be made from other people's rubbish.
William Hogland, a professor in Environmental Engineering and Recovery from the University of Kalmar in Sweden, also points to previous instances of dumpsite mining in Israel in the early 1950s where the soil -- enriched with rotting waste -- was recovered and recycled to improve soil quality in orchards.
And certain US states have since the 1980s mined waste from landfills to be used as fuel for incineration to produce energy.
"Several pilot studies have been carried out for research or pre-feasibility studies in countries in Europe, but also in China, Japan and India," he said.
For global waste experts, not everyone's rubbish is the same: different sites have different potential and an individual country's or region's dumps show characteristics relating to the culture, historical development and economic climate.
"For example, landfills in Sweden dating from the 1960s have a lot of waste building material, reflecting the construction boom of that era," said Hogland.
"And other landfills have very specific waste -- like those used by vehicle breakers -- which have high concentrations of aluminium, copper and iron scrap."
"The value of these materials varies daily with global market prices, and today there is considerable demand for scrap metal from China, for instance."
But in Britain, it is in the millions of tonnes of plastic that people threw out in a pre-recycling era that experts see a potentially lucrative future.
That potential is clear to Chris Dow, managing director of the first so-called "closed loop" recycling plant in Britain able to recycle plastic bottles to a standard high enough for re-use as food packaging.
Closed Loop London is one of only six similar plants around the world in Austria, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States and processes polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, used for water and drinks bottles, and high-density polyethylene (HDP). It has the capacity to recycle 35,000 tonnes each year.
A passionate recycler, Dow is convinced there is value buried in rubbish dumps, but angry that talk has turned to investing in technologies to harvest it rather than focusing on stopping more plastic from being dumped now.
"Just imagine the resources that are lying in those landfills -- it could be incredible," he told Reuters.
"But the insane thing is that we are talking now about investing millions into tapping into a resource under the ground, when the real tragedy is that every week we're still dumping tonnes and tonnes of plastic into more landfills. It's an act of vandalism against the environment." (Editing by Sara Ledwith)
Conquering the World's Waste Mountains
PlanetArk 27 Aug 08;
Waste management experts around the world are starting to consider digging up old trash from existing landfill sites to recycle decades-old plastics and other materials into new products or energy sources.
But at the same time, the world is also seeking to reduce the mountains going into landfill by encouraging people to recycle more before it is thrown away, according to a Reuters survey of collection in major cities worldwide.
Here are some facts and figures about the world's waste:
World household rubbish output is projected to rise to about 3 billion tonnes a year by 2030 from 1.6 billion tonnes in 2005 -- or about 1 kg (2.2 lbs) per person per day in 2005, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Richer nations send about half their trash to landfills but the rate is expected to fall to 40 percent by 2030 as governments promote recycling, for instance of metals, glass and paper, or incineration to generate heat or electricity.
No country has hit upon a magic clean-up formula with policies varying widely. Countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark are among the best performers with least sent to landfills, according to the OECD.
In poorer nations, people are more careful about what they throw away but most trash that is collected goes to landfills.
Here is a sample of how major cities are tackling trash:
BEIJING
Almost all bins in Beijing on the streets and in housing complexes are separated into recyclable and non-recyclable compartments, but public awareness is still relatively low so they are often filled with a mix of all kinds of rubbish.
Much of the real recycling is done by migrant workers, often using heavily loaded tricycles, who collect everything from paper to bottles and styrofoam for resale. They sell the waste, usually by weight, to middlemen with trucks.
The Beijing city municipal administration commission says 88 percent of waste goes to landfills.
NEW YORK
Since the Fresh Kills Staten Island dump closed in 2001, New York City has exported 45,000 tonnes per day of trash to states as far away as Ohio. Barges and trains take away most of the trash. The loads were once carried by trucks, but rising fuel and emissions costs have led to the shift.
About 30 percent of the waste stream is diverted through recycling. That makes New York a leader among cities on the East Coast, but a laggard compared to major cities on the West Coast. A 5 cent bounty for most beverage containers has led to a small recycling industry in which the young, old and homeless carry enormous bags and carts of bottles to collection areas.
Businesses are required to stack cardboard for recycling, with mixed results when it rains. Recycling of New York City paper and plastic are sputtering industries on the outskirts of the city. As tipping costs at faraway landfills rise, trash is becoming a bigger headache for New York.
LONDON
Collections vary by district. The south eastern London borough of Bexley is one of the greenest, composting or recycling 40 percent of household waste. Residents are given green, maroon and black boxes to separate out paper and card, cans and plastic bottles and glass. These are collected fortnightly. Brown bins, collected weekly, are used for garden and kitchen waste for composting. Since 1994 Bexley council has offered households subsidised composting bins.
Charities also collect textiles and shoes. Every month the council runs a "Nappachino's" morning to persuade young mothers to use fabric nappies that can be re-used.
Britain's first food-grade plastics recycling plant was opened in London in June. The "closed loop" plant processes polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, used for water and drinks bottles, and high-density polyethylene (HDP). It has the capacity to recycle 35,000 tonnes each year.
NAIROBI
Rubbish collection in the Kenyan capital is dominated by small private operators who run decrepit trucks. They stop at apartment complexes and street corners to collect rubbish that they then take to landfills, where some of it is burned. The cost of a twice-weekly collection is usually included in the rent for upscale apartments, while poorer city-dwellers pay a few shillings (US cents) a week for the service.
Much of the waste makes its way to one of Africa's biggest rubbish mountains, Nairobi's 30 acre (12.14 hectares) dump at Dandora. Last year, the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme launched a campaign calling for a clean-up at Dandora, which it said receives 2,000 tonnes of garbage a day, seriously harms the health of local children and is polluting the city. People scavenging at the dump are most at risk.
TOKYO
Households in Tokyo generally divide garbage into recyclable, combustible and non-combustible waste. New technology at trash-burning plants allows residents to throw out most plastics, leather and rubber as "combustible" waste, making life easier for residents since combustible waste is collected twice a week, while the rest is collected only once a week.
Recyclables include plastic bottles, aluminium cans and glass. Newspapers and magazines must also be bundled up separately to be picked up once a week. There is no charge for collections, with the exception of oversized trash such as furniture and electrical appliances.
In Japan as a whole in 2005-06, 19.7 percent of trash was sent for recycling, 77.4 percent to incineration, some of it generating electricity, and just 2.9 percent to landfills such as in Tokyo Bay, according to the Environment Ministry.
MOSCOW
Households dispose of garbage at sites in housing developments. The containers often overflow with rotting food, nappies and broken furniture and packs of semi-feral dogs which roam the city sometimes tear through the bags and spread waste.
The rubbish is sent to both landfill sites and incinerators -- the government aims to build another six incinerators by 2012 at a cost of US$2.5 billion, according to environmental group Greenpeace which opposes the planned siting of incinerators near Moscow suburbs.
