Contribution towards achieving improvements in the Environment in the North Sea Region through better Waste Management & Handling of Household/Domestic Waste

WMHH-NSR

Priority 3 Sustainable North Sea Region: Protecting against climate change and preserving the environment

ACC - The Associuation of Consultants in Cooperation

Gunnar

Jansson

gunnar.jansson.amsco@ebox.tninet.se

Nyårsvägen 6

SE-35261

Växjö

Sweden

+46708671551

Increased household sorting is important as well as the aims and methods to achieve decreased volume and production of waste. The main aims of the project are to identify and prepare documentation of the specific issues such as legislation & ruling, recommendations and services offered by the stakeholders and the necessary challenges which have been encountered and reported as well as results of the analysis of possible causes such as for example; due to e.g. lack of enforcement, information and recommendation, applied measures and methods, strict following up, consumer’s/household’s lack of discipline or insufficient or illegal actions, lack of expertise, funding or practicalities. Just as important are to report achieved acceptable results i.e. best practice in the respective participating countries. In regards to the question of Waste Management & Handling: - Some form of SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) to be applied. - Present ruling and legislation- Fines and/or penalties as a result of unlawful practice. - Identification and documentation into who are the stakeholders and/or the public or private providers of waste management services and also the specific services and products offered and costs/fees, collection frequency by the stakeholders. - Waste sorting and collection regarding the domestic/households - consumers. Which fractions are sorted such as organic/degradable, paper, packaging, plastic, metal, glass (coloured and transparent), combustible, and how are they packed and collected? - Do the practiced method differ between single or semi-detached private houses, housing estates or housing blocks of apartments or in the surrounding adjacent rural areas/communities in the studied areas? – Further waste handling and/or sorting – central or individual and related costs/fees practiced. - The presence and accessibility of collection and handling centres, central or local – Degree of recycling and bi-products e.g. increased production of biogas, agricultural fertilizer products and/or horticultural enhancement products e.g. soil, use in energy heating plants; recycling for use in paper production; plastic for use as padding in clothing; new metal manufacture and new glass production, electronic parts reclaiming How is dangerous waste incl. batteries, paint, toxic material, light bulbs, electronic waste, electrical appliances etc collected and taken care of? - How are landfills, new and older, managed? Landfill products and landfill issues such as restoration of existing old landfill sites to extract methane gas or reduce effluent pollution through seepage or leaching or methane emission through lining or covering techniques to prevent contamination entering the ground water, rivers and oceans are posing a threat to drinking water quality and pollution of the surroundings incl. the air. Reduction of present and new landfills with corresponding decrease in methane leakage should be a priority. (For example it has been recorded that in Poland maybe as high as 95%? of waste goes to landfills with considerable negative environmental impacts as a result, whereas in Scandinavia and no doubt also Germany it is just around 5%. It is unknown what the corresponding figures and situation in Holland, Belgium and in the UK are but this is what will be revealed in the project. The entire proposed project fits well in line with the EU directives stating that waste volumes should have been stabilised by 2012 and decline after 2020. Waste must also be regarded as a resource. Organic waste and waste handling has huge negative environmental impacts as disposal but if sorted and processed correctly then the results will be both sustainable as well as providing cost efficient sources of energy. – Other specific problems e.g. illegal depositing/fly-tipping, littering etc and to what degree does it occur?

The proposed project plans to highlight and tackle somewhat some of the major problems and challenges that the European community is facing regarding the environment and in particular waste handling, management and even recycling of waste materials produced in the domestic households. The actions fall well in to the major priority areas of EU i.e. “Blue & Green” sectors and in fact affect the world as a whole, not only for today’s but also for future generations, since the environment and its condition affects us all. Every day we can read about specific environmental problems and issues whether it be waste sorting, collection and handling, recycling, littering, waste management, pollution of the groundwater and ocean and thereby the water quality and accessibility, air pollution, nature destruction, all of which is directly affecting the quality of life for its citizens. Just in the North Sea Region alone there are surely large disparities and imbalance in the extent to which the addressed household and domestic waste problems are addressed, tackled, achieved results and lack of universal common sense, responsibility and natural actions. The existing daily standards and practice and problems need to be clearly monitored, identified and documented and measures must be proposed and recommended to bring about radical and lasting changes leading to total, or at least as high enhancement of an acceptable level of sustainability. One of the governing factors is what legislation (local, regional or national) and ruling is in place and how is this enforced and/or adhered to. Here the individual stakeholders, whether they are municipal or private are important “actors” in this environmental equation.

As a result of and through the implementation of suitable and relevant chosen and planned series of seminars, conferences, study visits and workshops, valuable information and exchange of ideas will be achieved. The major output to be aimed for is the complete (as far as possible) identification and documentation of the present status for the households & private consumers in the chosen urban and surrounding rural community that can be regarded as representative for each respective countries participating in the project. These results will then be compared with and how they fulfill the existing recommendations, ruling and legislation. Exchange of experience and best practice with the other NSR regions is the major goal which can lead to recommendations concerning possibilities and the implementation of improvements or just tightening up and following existing ruling, achieved practice and results. The importance of available relevant informative and easy-to-understand information (possibly as well as in other languages than the country’s mother tongue) whether it be in printed form, as signboards or in digital form as websites etc will be addressed.

The state of the environment is something that greatly concerns us as well as future generations as pointed out in UN Paris Climate Agreement. It is also something which we can all be involved in and contribute to decreasing the produced volume and the problems of pollution etc. We all participate in creating waste but we still have ways to reduce the harmful effects. One needs to look on waste materials as a resource instead of a problem. Correct identification of the waste fraction, sorting, packaging and ensuring it is collected to be recycled, treated or just for deposition is the responsibility of both we the producers and the stakeholders who are responsible for the collection, handling and treatment of the waste. Many countries manage this situation completely correct but unfortunately others do not. To date, to my knowledge, there has been no attempt to study how the situation is handled in the NSR countries and in the exchange of knowledge and best practices. Thus the proposed project must be considered as long overdue and in accordance with EU’s green and blue environmental priorities and objectives.

Adaptation and resilience
Catchment management
Climate change
Climate change adaptation
Financial planning
Stakeholder involvement
Sustainable environmental management

Sorting, Handling, Packaging, Management, Collection, Recycling, Deposition, Specific Environmental

Partners in or connected with or experienced in Sweden regarding Waste Management & Handling are already contacted as also from Denmark

It is hoped to recruit Partners that are stakeholders or public organisations that are direct or indirectly involved in Waste Management & Handling from Norway, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands

approx 2 - 3 000 000 depending on the Project consortium