Legislation and policy initiatives are placing stringent recycling requirements on local authorities, but can recycling be successfully maximised to reach environmental and economic goals? Jane Forshaw reports on one innovation that aims to do just that.

The Government's recently published Waste Strategy sets obligatory targets for waste recycling and recovery and a host of European Directives set challenging targets for a variety of waste streams. Unfortunately, these targets are based on collections rather than actual recycling through commercial or industrial processing. The Government has appreciated the need to develop markets to "pull" material from the waste stream and accordingly, £40m of funding is being given to the Waste Resources Action Programme over a three-year period to create markets for recyclable material.

THE ECONOMICS OF RECYCLING
The landfill tax is currently set at £12 per tonne and will rise at £1 per tonne, yearly, until 2004. There are proposals to make subsequent increases of £15 a year, which would hopefully force an improvement in the economics of recycling and stimulate the creation of a viable infrastructure.

On top of these costs, there is the "cost of disposal". This means that, on average, the collection and disposal of municipal waste is around £55 per tonne for traditional household collection and £120 per tonne for fully integrated doorstep collection and final disposal of the residue. For every tonne of waste that could be diverted from landfill this expense would be saved. Market developments mean that higher value uses can be found for items such as glass, plastics, and timber. Thus, waste can be diverted from being a cost for disposal to being a source of income.

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH PARK
Urban Mines, a not-for-profit company based in Bradford, was incorporated in 1995 with the aim of facilitating various material recovery projects. The company has developed the concept of the sustainable growth park (SGP), which could help local authorities meet recycling targets through sustainable management of the urban waste stream. There is also the additional promise of sustainable jobs and urban regeneration. The company plans to set up such a site in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, but the SGP is a model that can be reproduced in other urban areas.

The concept of an SGP is essentially that of an industrial estate dedicated to businesses that add value to waste materials. This would occur through sorting, grading, cleaning or processing to provide secondary materials to the specification required by the end user. Additionally, the SGP would include businesses that manufacture products from secondary materials or further process for other applications, such as compost and aggregates. The are a number of major differences between the SGP and other industrial estates. First, there is a direct on-site connection between the processing of material and its use in manufacturing. Second, support facilities will be provided through the setting up of a Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) which will consist of:

• technical support in the form of laboratory facilities and technical support staff to advise on engineering processing, specifications, potential markets and general business support;
• research facilities linked with universities, compliance organisations, designers and others;
• training facilities and support staff to provide on the job training;
• education facilities for visiting groups from industry, community groups and schools; and
• the provision of conference facilities.

Third, the SGP will incorporate incubation or new business start-up units as part of the BIC to provide a range of workshop facilities for entrepreneurs or existing businesses which wish to try a new line or product. These will offer short-term revenue support to assist new enterprises during their first period of operation.

CLUSTERS
Undoubtedly, the SGP will not attract all existing recycling businesses and even some new businesses may prefer to operate on a separate site due to size, raw material availability or other factors. Nevertheless, the aim should be to link the park with other businesses and offer them the same support facilities through the BIC. Businesses sited on the SGP would have the advantages of:

• synergy provided by working with like-minded businesses;
• technical and other support services;
• availability of processed raw material;
• the use of centrally available processing equipment, such as conveyors and balers; and
• the promotional and educational opportunities provided by the BIC.

SITE LAYOUT
"Real" SGPs may differ substantially to the conceptual diagram shown above. The size, layout, transport and other facilities will inevitably vary according to what is available in terms of space, existing facilities and the local recycling infrastructure. It is possible that a park may operate on two or three central sites within a cluster or even on one main site, "networking" with several others. Central facilities: will include the BIC and incubation units, administration facilities and sorting and processing facilities - which will include a "clean" material recovery facility (MRF).

Reception facilities: incorporating a household waste site, a weighbridge and enclosed storage space for delivered materials. Operational units: these would be worked out with the developer and the potential tenants. It is probable that many units would be tailor made to suit the incoming tenant but small, medium and large units may well be provided. Retail outlet: this is an optional addition and would depend on the location, access and the type of tenants. However, refurbished furniture, white goods, computers, second hand goods with or without some cleaning process and craft items could be offered for sale. Access for transport: ideally the SGP should offer rail, waterways and road transport but this will obviously depend on location. The DETR offer freight facilities grants which could cover up to 90 per cent of capital costs.

FEEDSTOCK
The original emphasis of the concept was on separated domestic recyclable wastes linked to kerbside collections. While this should still be the long-term aim for any SGP, it may well be that the cost of establishing kerbside collections prevents the immediate inclusion of such wastes and the initial emphasis may have to concentrate on other materials.
The likeliest feedstock in the initial development stage includes:

• domestic appliances and furniture through the household waste site;
• commercial, including office wastes;
• some separated domestic packaging and paper either through pilot kerbsides or existing "drop-off" schemes such as bottle banks;
• commercial food and other organic wastes;
• some appropriate industrial wastes;
• construction and demolition wastes; and
• perhaps, end-of-life vehicles.

There is also likely to be some specially collected feedstock, for example plastic wastes from industry which flow into the SGP in the same way that some processed material is almost certainly going to be sold "off-site" to other processors. Local authorities can greatly enhance the viability of such a development proposal by ensuring waste streams are segregated, thereby ensuring a clean, efficient and consistent supply of raw materials.

Earlier mention was made of the possibility of creating businesses which make higher value products from recycled material. Working in conjunction with economic development departments and regeneration initiatives, various markets for products can be submitted.

GLASS
All the used glass currently collected through bottle banks or kerbside is cleaned up and fed into glass furnaces for the manufacture of more bottles and jars. This is fine in principle, but the glass manufacturers and their collectors have control of the market and dictate the price, which has progressed downwards over the last few years.

There is a clear need to develop alternative uses for glass cullet that will introduce an element of competition into the market for used glass. Some of the potential businesses include: construction use, shot-blasting, drainage medium, horticultural aggregates, water filtration medium, ceramic pipes and tiles, foam bricks and glasscrete.

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
Urban Mines already runs a number of extended life computer workshops, which take in redundant computers for refurbishment by trainees from the Government's New Deal programme. The revamped computers can then be sold on cheaply to schools and community groups.

A similar training workshop for white goods has been developed in Liverpool called CREATE, and furniture workshops can be developed on these same lines. In Liverpool, the CREATE and furniture workshops have joined forces to win the contract for the collection of all bulky household wastes from houses. There is an opportunity to take this existing expertise onto the SGP and perhaps include other electrical goods or, for example, mobile phones (with the support of the obligated industries) and develop a range of training or other workshops feeding into the retail outlet.

PLASTICS
Plastic reprocessing plants can take low value plastic wastes and manufacture profiles which can then be made into a range of products such as pallets, street and garden furniture, flood defences, horse jumps and boat decking.

END-OF-LIFE VEHICLES
The EC Directive will require efficient reprocessing of end-of-life vehicles, and an SGP would be able to achieve this through the development of a clean, highly professional plant. The process would include an initial de-contamination process (which may be carried out prior to delivery to the site) followed by a dismantling and disassembly stage for the usable parts and the removal of tyres, seats, engine, etc. A fragmenting plant would break down the metal, plastic and glass parts for sorting in the MRF. Any metal will readily be recycled and streams of glass, plastic, fabrics, tyres, etc will be run-off for use in other processes on the park.

RESOURCES
Local authorities will be supported by the New Opportunities Fund, with £50m available over three years. Money is also available through the Comprehensive Spending Assessment at £140m over three years, and £200m over three years is available through the Private Finance Initiative. In addition, income can be generated by providing training places for unemployed people. In South Yorkshire, Urban Mines is working with the Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward and WAMTEC of Sheffield University to set up market development opportunities and the country's first SGP. The funding for the project is estimated at £20m. Sustainable waste management can create sustainable business opportunities and local authorities can help in the realisation of this by:

• providing innovative segregation, collection, sorting and (re)processing of wastes for reuse and recycling as secondary raw materials;
• stimulating substantial new employment options from a range of businesses from social firms to high technology skills, and create a significant increase in capacity required in both existing and new waste related business; and
• the increased use of wastes as secondary raw materials will reduce the cost of waste disposal and provide alternatives to virgin raw materials to businesses in several sectors.

If action is not taken now, the UK is in danger of being left far behind its European partners and runs the risk of enforcement proceedings from Europe for failure to meet its targets.

Jane Forshaw is project director at Urban Mines Ltd. For further details tel: 01274 755 326. Fax: 01274 755 040. E-mail: urbanmines@dial.pipex.com

Urban Mines is a not-for-profit environmental organisation concerned with the development and application of soundly based and practical approaches to the better management of the waste stream. The organisation works in partnership with a wide range of public, private and voluntary bodies in order to promote materials recovery, economic regeneration, job creation and environmental improvement. Most of its projects demonstrate a concern with the direct practical application of proven techniques and methods of management while others are more theoretical and conceptual.