Sustainable Waste and Materials Management: National Policy and Global Perspective

Abstract

aste generation and resource shortages have long beenrecognized as two of the greatest challenges humansociety is facing. In the early 1970s, the Club of Rome, a groupof pioneering global thinkers, predicted in their milestone bookThe Limits to Growth that “if the present growth trends in worldpopulation...pollution ... and resource depletion continueunchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reachedsometime within the next one hundred years”. Since the 1970s,“sustainability” has become a key word in modern culture andhas drawn a massive increase of attention. Many countries nowconsider sustainability a top priority of their national policies onwaste and materials management. However, these policies tendto focus on each individual country and therefore may lack aglobal perspective.The United Kingdom (UK) Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), in a White Paper entitled“Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011”published June 14, 2011, sets out actions to achieve anambitious goal of “zero waste economy”. This commitmentmay be partly attributed to England’s recent success in boostingits waste recycling rate. In 2010/11, England’s household wasterecycling rate reached 40%, representing a significant increasefrom 11% in 2000/01. The commercial and industrial recyclingrate is 52%, up from 42% in 2002/03. This increase of recyclingrate is astonishing when compared to that in the United Stateswhere the municipal solid waste recycling rate only increased by5% over a decade, reaching 34% in 2010. A large portion ofUK’s recycled materials are exported to other countries,primarily countries in the Far East. Currently the UK exports15 million tonnes of recycled materials, which is equivalent toapproximately 32% of the total household and commercialwaste.While cheering for greatly improved recycling practice in theUK, we may ignore certain adverse effects associated with it, forinstance, waste and contamination transfer. The UK isexporting 80% of its low-grade mixed papers, but only 20%of its high grade paper.