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480428S WASTE MINIMIZATION RESOURCES USE OPTIMIZATION

Exam material for the post-graduate courseorganized for the Finnish Graduate School in Environmental Science and Technology

University of Oulu, 3.-7.4.2006

Eva PongrczUniversity of OuluDepartment of Process and Environmental Engineering

Heat and Mass Transfer Process Laboratory


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Contents

1 The history of waste management ...............................................................................................41.1 Sources of waste...................................................................................................................51.2 Hidden flows ........................................................................................................................6

1.3 Decoupling...........................................................................................................................62 Material use intensity ...................................................................................................................7

2.1 Development of new materials ............................................................................................82.2 Constructing a Material Century..........................................................................................82.3 The birth of mass production ...............................................................................................92.4 The role of military in materials innovation ......................................................................10

3 The ecological footprint of a society..........................................................................................103.1 The Shadow Side of Consumption ....................................................................................12

4 Important milestones in raising environmental awareness ........................................................135 The EU policy on environment ..................................................................................................15

5.1 Waste legislation in the European Union...........................................................................15

5.2 Waste legislation in Finland...............................................................................................175.3 Relevant definitions in legislation......................................................................................185.4 The problems with the definition of waste.........................................................................195.5 Re-defining waste ..............................................................................................................195.6 Defining non-waste ............................................................................................................215.7 Can every waste be turned into non-waste?.......................................................................215.8 Re-defining waste management .........................................................................................225.9 The role of waste minimisation..........................................................................................22

5.9.1 Prevent creating things with no Purpose....................................................................225.9.2 Prevent creating things with a single finite Purpose ..................................................235.9.3 Prevent creating things that cease performing ...........................................................235.9.4 Preventing owners from failing use things for their Purpose.....................................23

6 The waste management hierarchy..............................................................................................246.1 Waste prevention................................................................................................................25

6.1.1 Strict avoidance..........................................................................................................256.1.2 Reduction at source ....................................................................................................266.1.3 Waste prevention measures........................................................................................26

6.2 Waste minimization ...........................................................................................................276.3 Re-use.................................................................................................................................276.4 Recycling ...........................................................................................................................28

6.4.1 The problem with recycling .......................................................................................28

6.5 Recovery ............................................................................................................................286.6 Disposal..............................................................................................................................297 Industrial metabolism and its importance to waste minimization..............................................29

7.1 Entropy...............................................................................................................................307.2 Measures of Industrial Metabolism....................................................................................317.3 Policy Implications of the Industrial Metabolism Perspective ..........................................32

8 Strategic waste prevention .........................................................................................................338.1 Links to other concepts ......................................................................................................34

8.1.1 Eco-efficiency (E2). ...................................................................................................348.1.2 Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). ................................................348.1.3 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). .................................................................34

8.1.4 Integrated Product Policy (IPP). ................................................................................348.1.5 Integrated Resources Management ............................................................................35


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8.1.6 Resources use optimization........................................................................................359 Tools of resources use optimization...........................................................................................36

9.1 Industrial Ecology ..............................................................................................................369.2 Dematerialization...............................................................................................................37

9.2.1 Carbon nanotubes, the ultimate champions of dematerialization (Wikipedia) ..........37

9.2.2 Constraints to dematerialization.................................................................................389.2.3 Dematerialization through service .............................................................................40

9.3 Decarbonization .................................................................................................................409.3.1 Geothermal Energy (Source: Geothermal Education Office) ....................................419.3.2 Solar energy (Source: EERE) ....................................................................................419.3.3 Energy efficiency .......................................................................................................42

9.4 Design for the Environment (DFE)....................................................................................439.5 Cradle-to-cradle design (Source: McDonough and Braungart 2002) ................................44

10 Sustainable products and production (Source: Lowell Center for Sustainable Production)..4510.1 Principles of Sustainable Production .................................................................................45

11 Cleaner production .................................................................................................................46

11.1 Pollution prevention ...........................................................................................................47Summary ............................................................................................................................................47References ..........................................................................................................................................48


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1 The history of waste managementWaste management as a government activity has existed in most OECD countries since the earlypart of the 20th century (Figure 2). Governmental action, which began at the local level, was largelya response to the laissez-faire (a French phrase meaning let do) disposal of all types of wastesinto the urban environment. Hygiene and public health were the main drivers for government

intervention. (Vancini 2000.)

Figure 1 Evolution of the Waste Issue: Conceptual Overview (Jackson 1991).

The practice of turning by-products into the valuable inputs of another industry is as ancient aseconomic development. For thousands of such illustrations , one can look at the lengthy turn of the20th century books that cover the most significant industrial activities of their days (Desrochers2002):

Waste products and Undeveloped Substances: Hints, for Enterprise in Neglected Fields(Simmonds 1862)

Waste products and Undeveloped Substances: Synopsis of Progress during the last Quarter ofCentury (Simmonds 1867)

One can also look at a list of numerous book-length treatments of specific cases. Here is a shortsampling (Desrochers 2002):

A great problem solved: How to utilize waste heat from Chimneys (Silver 1987) Utilization of waste oranges (Cruess 1914) Utilization of waste tomato skins an seeds (Rabak 1917) Recovery and re-manufacture of waste paper (Strachan 1918) Utilization of waste sulphate liquor (Johnsen 1919) Recovering of precious metals from waste liquid residues (Gee 1920)

Numerous other illustrations can also be found in the various publications put out from 1905onward by the Atlas Publishing Company, the most prominent of which was the Waste TradeJournal.


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1.1Sources of wasteWaste represents an enormous loss of resources both in the form of materials and energy. Indeed,quantities of waste can be seen as an indicator of the material efficiency of society. It is difficult tostate accurately how much waste is being generated on the whole in Europe. There are manyreasons for this. For example, the definitions of waste and estimation techniques are not the same

across different countries, or even across time within the same countries. Also, overlaps betweendifferent classes of wastes (e.g., industrial and hazardous) introduce further sources of uncertaintyin any estimates. Nevertheless, in approximate terms it can be stated that around 2 billion tonnes ofwaste is generated in EU-15 every year. The data available by sector are subject to uncertainties butEurostat has estimated that almost a third of the total waste comes from agriculture and forestry andbroadly the same amount from construction and demolition. A similar amount is added by themining and quarrying and the manufacturing sectors. Figure 2 illustrates the waste generation bysector in the EU.

Figure 2 Estimated total annual waste generation in the EU-15 by sectorIn Finland, it is estimated that the annual waste generation amounts to some 65 million tonnes.Waste statistics cover all waste materials starting with primary production, except logging residuesleft in the forest. Figure 3 illustrates waste generation for each sector. (The data originate from thepages of the Ministry of Environment http.www.ymparisto.fi) The figure is not conclusive andcontains approximate data.

Solid waste is also increasingly produced as an attempt to solve other environmental problems suchas water and air pollution. Some of these wastes give rise to new problems examples includesewage sludge and residues from waste management facilities; for instance cleaning of flue gasesfrom waste incineration.

While total waste quantities are a measure of resource loss, the environmental impact of wastecannot be analysed by looking at quantity alone. Dangerous substances in waste, even in smallquantities, can have a very negative impact on the environment. The relative environmental impactof waste is related to both the quantity and the degree of hazard associated with it. There are,therefore, two aspects to waste generation: quantitative, i.e. how much is generated, and qualitative,i.e. the degree of hazard.


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Agriculture

20 000 000

Manufacturing

12 000 000

Energy

1 500 000

Mining

25 000 000

Municipal

sludge

150 000

Construction

1 400 000

MSW2 400 000

Figure 3 Wastes in 2003. Source: Ministry of Environment (http://www.ymparisto.fi)

1.2Hidden flowsBringing products to the market place relies on a sophisticated chain of activities that extends fromextraction and production to distribution and consumption. Each and every activity that precedes themarket introduction of products is associated with waste generation. Hidden flows are thoseportions of overall material requirements supporting an economy that never actually enter themarket economy; in particular hidden flows refer to the natural resource use that occurs whenproviding commodities for the market-place, such as deriving from mining, forestry, earth moving,and other sources. (Vancini 2000) It has been estimated that hidden flows account for as much as75% of the total materials required by OECD countries (WRI et al. 1997).

Figure 4 Life-cycle of waste generation (Vancini 2000)

Figure 4 portrays how waste generation is linked to the life-cycle of products and materials. Thecradle-to-grave linkages shown in the figure are merely illustrative of where wastes arise duringeconomic processes. Other waste streams may exist that are not shown.

1.3Decoupling"Decoupling" is one of the key goals of policies related to management and use of resources. As atechnical term, decoupling means that the growth rate of environmental impacts is less than that of a


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given economic driving force (e.g. GDP) over a certain period. Relative decoupling occurs whenenvironmental impact increases, but at a slower rate than the underlying economic driver. Absolutedecoupling occurs when environmental impact decreases while the economy grows.

The recently published Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources aims at

reducing the negative environmental impacts of resource use by decoupling economic growth andenvironment impacts. Given current levels of economic growth, the Strategy recognises that it islikely that two distinct decoupling mechanisms will be required in combination to achieve absolutedecoupling of environmental impact from GDP. These two mechanisms are, firstly, the decouplingof resource use from economic growth, and secondly, the decoupling of environmental impact fromunit resource use.

With respect to the first decoupling mechanism, Europe has achieved at least partial decoupling ofresource use from economic growth. In many EU countries, the economy in recent years has beengrowing at a faster rate than resource use. The EU economy grew by almost 50 % since the 1980s,while the use of energy and renewable and non-renewable resources remained fairly constant. In

other words resource productivity has grown by 50% over the same period. The last decades have,therefore, seen at least a relative decoupling of resource and energy consumption from economicgrowth. However, this factor on its own has not led to an absolute decoupling of environmentalimpact from economic growth. The second decoupling mechanism, decoupling environmentalimpact from unit resource use, is much more difficult to measure and monitor. Increased use of end-of-pipe technologies can reduce environmental pressures resulting from unit resource use. However,it is rare that there is a concrete and linear relationship between environmental pressures andresulting environmental impacts. It is, therefore, difficult to estimate aggregated environmentalimpacts accruing over Europe as a whole from a given total quantity of emissions. The level ofresource use in Europe, and hence the likely magnitude of its environmental impact, is highcompared to global averages.

2 Material use intensityImagine a truck delivering to your house each morning all the materials you use in a day, exceptfood and fuel. Piled at the front door are: the wood in your newspaper the chemicals in yourshampoo and the plastic in your grocery bags, metals in your appliances and your car just thatdays share of those items' total lives are also included, as is your daily fraction of sharedmaterials, such as the stone and gravel in your office walls and in the streets you stroll. At the baseof the pile are materials you never see: the nitrogen and potash used to grow your food, and theearth and rock under which your metals and minerals were once buried.

For a citizen of a developed country, this daily delivery would be about 100 kg. But tomorrow,another 100 kg arrive, and the next day, another. By month's end, you have used three tons ofmaterial, and over the year, 36 tons. And millions of people are doing the same thing, every day.Consumption of metal, glass, wood, cement, and chemicals in industrial countries since 1900 isunprecedented, having grown 18-fold. These huge flows are also more complex and toxic than ever.Today's stock of materials draws from all 92 naturally occurring elements in the periodic table,compared with the 20 or so in use at the turn of the century. This larger range of choices enabledscientists to move beyond classic building blocks wood, ceramics, and metals as they developednew materials. Simple materials like silicon essentially sand, the most common element in theEarths crust are the central ingredient in complex products like computer chips. Impressive asthey are, improving many aspects of human life, the new materials are also often toxic and

frequently resisted re-absorption into the natural environment at the end of their useful lives.Because industrial economies were not built for recycling, massive materials use in the 20 th century


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also generated huge flows of waste. In modern economies, the bulk of waste is invisible to most ofus: mining slurry, factory effluent, smokestack emissions, and product trimmings are several timesgreater in quantity than the garbage collected from our homes and offices. (Gardner & Sampat1998)

2.1Development of new materialsModern chemistry introduced new synthetic chemicals, often with unknown consequences, into theremotest corners of the world. In 1995, scientists studying the global reach of organochlorinepesticides reported that almost all of the ones they studied were present on a global scale.Researchers looking for a control population of humans free of chemical contamination turned tothe native peoples of the Canadian Arctic, only to find that they carried chemical contaminants athigher levels than inhabitants of St. Lawrence, Canada, the original focus of the research.Chemicals had reached the indigenous people through wind, water, and their food supply. Similarly,toxic industrial chemicals were reported found in 1998 in the tissue of whales that feed at greatdepths in the Atlantic Ocean in feeding grounds that were presumed to be clean. Part of the reason

for this worrying development is that many chemicals cannot be recaptured once emitted to theenvironment. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), for instance, which were long used as refrigerants andsolvents are implicated in the decay of stratospheric ozone. A large share of pesticides used inagriculture roughly 85-90 % never reach their targets, dispersing instead through air, soil, andwater and sometimes settling in the fatty tissues of animals and people. Many synthetic chemicalsare not just widespread, but long-lived. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including those used inelectrical wiring or pesticides, remain active in the environment long after their original purpose isserved. Because they are slow to degrade, POPs accumulate in fatty tissues as they are passed upthe food chain. (Gardner & Sampat 1998.)

2.2Constructing a Material CenturyThe intensive use of materials in this century has deep historical roots. Since the IndustrialRevolution, advances in technology and changes in society and in business practices have interactedto build economies that could extract, process, consume, and dispose of tremendous quantities ofmaterials. Although the roots of these trends extend back centuries, most have matured only in thelast 100 years.

The case of iron, the emblematic material of the Industrial Revolution, illustrates how technologicaladvances fed materials use. In 1879, a British clerk and his chemist cousin invented a process formaking high-quality steel a harder and more durable alloy of iron-from any grade of iron ore,eliminating the need for phosphorus-free ore. This innovation cut steelmaking costs by some 80-90

percent, which in turn drove demand skyward: between 1870 and 1913, iron ore production inBritain, Germany, and France multiplied 83-fold. Further innovations and robust demand led to asix- fold increase in world production between 1913 and 1995. Today, iron and steel account for 85percent of world metals, and a tenth, by weight, of world materials production.

As richer ores were depleted, new extractive technologies made it possible to mine metal fromrelatively poor lodes, a practice known as low-grading. In 1900, it was not feasible to extractcopper, for example, from ore that contained less than 3 percent of the metal. But technologicaladvances have since lowered the extraction threshold to less than 0.5 percent, increasing the numberof sites where mining is viable, and greatly expanding the quantity of ore needed to extract the sameamount of copper. As world copper production grew 22-fold over the century, in step with rising

demand for automotive and electrical uses, waste production grew 73-fold. Likewise, modern


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logging and mining equipment have made it possible to reduce tracts of forest into sawn lumber in amatter of hours, or to shear off entire mountaintops on order to reach mineral deposits.

Meanwhile, transportation and energy developments also greased the wheels of the materials boom.With the expansion of roads, canals, railways, and aviation networks, it became easier to haul ever-

greater quantities of raw materials to factories and markets. Completion of the Canadian PacificRailway in 1905, for instance, laid open the country's rich western provinces to mineralexploitation, while locomotives later helped empty Liberian mines of iron ore for Europeanmarkets. Over the century, the availability of cheap oil a better-performing fuel than coal or wood made materials production more economical than ever. The powerful combination of decliningcosts for energy and raw materials fuelled expansion in industrial scale and kept the cycle ofexploration and production in constant motion. (Gardner & Sampat 1998.)

2.3The birth of mass productionInspired by the use of standard, inter-changeable parts to facilitate large-scale musket production in

the early nineteenth century, Henry Ford adopted the concept of mass production in his automobilefactories. Ford's moving assembly line and standardised components slashed production time perchassis from 12.5 hours in 1913 to 1.5 hours in 1914. Costs also fell: a Ford Model T cost $600 in1912 but just $265 in 1923, bringing car ownership within reach of many more consumers. AndFords total output jumped from 4 million cars in 1920 to 12 million in 1925, accounting for abouthalf of all automobiles made in the world at the time. Soon manufacturers of refrigerators, radios,and other consumer goods adopted these mass production principles with similar results.

As the scale of production ballooned, demographic shifts and new business strategies created amarket to match it. The U.S. and European labour forces became increasingly urbanised, middle-class, and salaried in the first third of the century, characteristics that facilitated the creation of a

consumer class. Material affluence steadily became more accessible to the average individual.Business initiatives encouraged and capitalised on these trends, with Henry Ford once again aleader. In 1914, Ford introduced a daily wage of five dollars more than twice the going rate thereby augmenting his workers spending power. He also reduced working hours, believing, in thewords of one analyst that an increase in leisure time would support an increase in consumerspending, not least on automobiles and automobile travel. Other employers loudly opposed shorterworkdays but conceded increases in pay for the same reason Ford did: to prime the pump ofconsumer spending.

Prospering workers and their families quickly became the targets of sophisticated marketing efforts.Department stores and mail order catalogues funnelled a wealth of goods to the consumer, andconsumer credit made those goods affordable: by the end of the 1920s, about 60 percent of cars,radios, and furniture were being purchased on credit. Other clever strategies were used to boostsales too: in the 1920s, General Motors introduced annual model changes for its cars, playing onconsumers' desires for social status and novelty. The strategy succeeded: by 1927, when theindustry was still in its infancy, replacement purchases of cars outnumbered first-time purchases.Meanwhile, advertisers used insights from the new field of psychology to ensure that consumerswere "never satisfied" and linked the consumer's identity to products. Recognising the power ofadvertising to influence purchasing decisions, companies expanded their budgets for promotion.Global advertising expenditure surged over the century, reaching $435 billion in 1996. As people indeveloping countries have prospered in recent years, advertising spending there has grown rapidly:

by more than 1,000 percent in China between 1986 and 1996, some 600 percent in Indonesia, andover 300 percent in Malaysia and Thailand. (Gardner & Sampat 1998.)


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2.4The role of military in materials innovationMore than 100,000 new chemical compounds have been developed since the 1930s, many of themfor use during World War II, boosting synthetic chemicals production 1,000-fold in the last 60 yearsin the United States alone. Today, these substances form the primary ingredients in chemicalpesticides, refrigerants, insulation, and industrial solvents.

The military played a role in materials innovation: the B-2 Stealth bomber alone spurred thedevelopment of more than 900 new materials. Aluminium smelting, a very energy- intensivepractice, was subsidised to produce large quantities of the metal for use in tanks, bombers, andfighter planes during World War II. Its use spread quickly to consumer products after the war, evento low-value household items like soda cans, boosting aluminium production 3,000-fold in thiscentury. Agricultural chemicals, like wartime hardware, were in part the products of militaryresearch and experience. The pesticide DDT was originally used to combat head lice among U.S.troops and to kill malaria-bearing mosquitoes during World War II. Ammonia, the base material forfertiliser, was first produced to supply Germany with explosives during World War I. As a

consequence of agricultural researchers' promoting the Green Revolution during the 1950s and1960s, world fertiliser use grew from 14 million tons in 1950 to 129 million in 1996.

New materials often replaced traditional ones plastic frequently supplanted metal, for example leading to lighter products. But material savings from "lightweighting" were nearly always offset byincreased consumption, especially as military suppliers turned their energies to consumer goodsafter World War II. For instance, global ownership of cars grew 10- fold between 1950 and 1997.Cars are an especially materials-intensive product, consuming a full third of U.S. iron and steel, afifth of its aluminium, and two thirds of its lead and rubber.

Automobile use was facilitated by and spurred the expansion of roads, houses, and other

infrastructure after mid-century. This construction boom prompted an eight-fold increase in globalcement production between 1957 and 1995, and a tripling of asphalt output world-wide since 1950.One third of this asphalt was poured into the giant U.S. network of interstate highways. Where thisinfrastructure supported low- rather than high-density development, as in U.S. suburbs, materialsdemand shot up, as far more sewers, bridges, building foundations, houses, and telephone cableswere needed to service a given number of people. (Gardner & Sampat 1998.)

3 The ecological footprint of a societyThere is the waste we see and then there is the waste we don't see. Everything is made fromsomething oil, wood, minerals, or natural gas and this creates a hidden history of waste.Germans call this a product's environmental rucksack. For instance, the amount of wastegenerated to make a semiconductor chip is over 100,000 times its weight; that of a laptop computer,close to 4,000 times its weight. One ton of paper requires the use of 98 tons of various resources.

In the early 1990s, researchers at the University of British Columbia began to calculate the amountof land needed to sustainably supply national populations with resources (including imported ones),and the amount needed to absorb their wastes. They dubbed this combined area the ecologicalfootprint of a population. In countries as different as the United States and Mexico, the footprint islarger than the nations entire land mass, because of a net dependence on imports, or because thearea needed to absorb wastes sustainably is larger than the area actually used. Sustaining the wholeworld at an American or Canadian level of resource use would require the land area of three Earths.

Materials use strongly influences the size of a population's footprint: in the U.S. case, materials areconservatively estimated to account for more than a fifth of the total footprint. (Fossil fuel use andfood production are other major components.)


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Mineral and metals extraction also leaves a lasting and damaging environmental footprint. Miningrequires removing from the earth both metal-bearing rock, called ore, and overburden, the dirtand rock that covers the ore. Very little of this material is used-for example, on average, some 110tons of overburden earth and an equal amount of ore are excavated to produce just a ton of copper(See Table 1).

Table 1 World ore and waste production for selected metals, 1995 (Garnder and Sampat 1998)

Metal ore mined (million tons) % that becomes waste

Iron 25503 60

Copper 11026 99

Gold1 7235 99.99

Zinc 1267 99.95

Lead 1077 97.5

Aluminium 856 70

Manganese 745 70

Nickel 387 97.5

Tin 195 99Tungsten 125 99.75

Not surprisingly, the total quantities of waste generated are enormous: Canada's mining wastes are58 times greater than its urban refuse. Few newlyweds would guess that their two gold weddingrings were responsible for six tons of waste at a mining site in Nevada or Kyrgyzstan. These mind-boggling movements of material now exceed those caused by natural systems: mining alone stripsmore of the Earth's surface each year than natural erosion by rivers does. (Gardner & Sampat 1998.)Additional observations on the global dimensions of the waste burden can also be made (Table 2).

Table 2 Global Dimensions of the Waste Burden (Vancini 2000)

Factor Observation

Population By 2050 the global population is projected to be 50% larger than today (i.e., 9billion people), and 95% of that growth is expected to occur in developing countries(Sewell and Morrison 1999).

Consumption Consumers in certain rapidly expanding non-OECD economies are emulating theecologically challenging consumption patterns of consumers in OECD countries.

Affluence Some of the highest GDP growth rates in the world are taking place in countriesoutside the OECD, such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia. (OECD1997b).

Technology The World Bank reports that massive levels of industrial investment will occur indeveloping countries (Hanrahan 1995). In principle, leap-frogging the dirtytechnologies of the past may be possible because many developing countries have

fewer sunken costs in older eco-unfriendly technologies (Andrews and Socolow1999).

Impact? A five-fold increase in global waste generation is possible by 2025 (CSD 1997).

Sustainable development is based on principles such as responsible use of natural resources andprotection of the environment. De-linking of waste generation from economic activity has a keyrole in helping to meet the objectives of reduced waste generation. Waste production is influencedboth by how efficiently we use resources in production, and the quantity of goods we produce andconsume.

1 1997 data


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3.1The Shadow Side of ConsumptionMines use toxic chemicals, including cyanide, mercury, and sulphuric acid, to separate metal fromore. Tailings, the chemical-laced ore that remains once the metal is separated, are often dumpeddirectly into lakes or rivers, with devastating consequences. In February 2000, Hungary experiencedEuropes worst ecological disaster since Chernbobyl, when the reservoir wall at Romanias Baia

Mare gold mine collapsed, and 100 000 m3 of cyanide used to extract gold was released intoHungarys Tisza river, killing virtually all life in. Not even bacteria survived.

Industrial activity the last century has released millions of tons of metals into the environment.Global industrial emissions of lead, for example, now exceed natural rates by a factor of 27. Theimpacts of metals emissions are grave: hundreds of thousands of hectares of Russian forest havebeen poisoned by emissions from industrial plants; pollution from the Norilsk nickel plant alone haskilled 300.000 hectares. Exposure to mercury, which is widely used by miners in the Amazon Basinand West Africa increases cancer risk and can damage vital organs and nervous systems. And lead,a neurotoxin, stunts childrens cognitive development.

Modern chemistry introduced new synthetic chemicals, often with unknown consequences, into theremotest corners of the world. In 1995, scientists studying the global reach of organochlorinepesticides reported that almost all of the ones they studied were ubiquitous on a global scale.Other evidence supports this conclusion: researchers looking for a control population of humansfree of chemical contamination turned to the native peoples of the Canadian Arctic, only to find thatthey carried chemical contaminants at higher levels than inhabitants of St. Lawrence, Canada, theoriginal focus of the research. Chemicals had reached the indigenous people through wind, water,and their food supply. Similarly, toxic industrial chemicals were reported found in 1998 in thetissue of whales that feed at great depths in the Atlantic Ocean in feeding grounds that werepresumed to be clean.

Part of the reason for this worrying development is that many chemicals cannot be recaptured onceemitted to the environment. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), for instance, which were long used asrefrigerants and solvents are implicated in the decay of stratospheric ozone. A large share ofpesticides used in agriculture roughly 85-90 percent never reach their targets, dispersing insteadthrough air, soil, and water and sometimes settling in the fatty tissues of animals and people.

Many synthetic chemicals are not just ubiquitous but long-lived. Persistent organic pollutants(POPs), including those used in electrical wiring or pesticides, remain active in the environmentlong after their original purpose is served. Because they are slow to degrade, POPs accumulate infatty tissues as they are passed up the food chain. Some have been shown to disrupt endocrine and

reproductive systems implicated in miniature genitals in Florida alligators, and abnormally thinbird eggshells, for example-often a generation or more after exposure. The delay in the appearanceof health effects caused by POPs raises questions about the wisdom of depending on tens ofthousands of newly synthesised chemicals whose effects are poorly understood.

The long list of unknowns concerning POPs is just a small indication of our chemical ignorance.The U.S. National Academy of Sciences reports that insufficient information exists for even apartial health assessment of 95 percent of chemicals in the environment. If information is lacking onthousands of individual chemicals, it is almost non-existent regarding how chemicals interact witheach other, or how they work over the long term, or on different segments of the population. Andeven if this scientific information were available, the actual use of chemicals by industry might

remain hidden. (Gardner & Sampat 1998.)


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4 Important milestones in raising environmental awarenessRachel Carson:Silent Spring (1962)A book on the chemical poisoning of the environment by unregulated use of pesticides andherbicides - especially DDT - in "agriculture control" farming. Widespread use of these chemicalsdestroyed wildlife habitats and threatened human communities. When Silent Spring was published,

Carson was viciously attacked. Huge sums of money were spent to discredit her. She was called "anignorant and hysterical woman who wanted to turn the earth over to the insects." While thescientific methods she used were not impeccable, her message about the environment as aninterrelated organic system struck a popular nerve. The smear campaign backfired. Silent Springsparked a revolution in government environmental policy and became instrumental in creating anew ecological consciousness.

Meadows et al.: The Limits to Growth (1972)The authors had been commissioned by The Club of Rome, an international group of distinguishedbusinessmen, statesmen, and scientists to undertake a two-year study to investigate the long-term

causes and consequences of growth in population, industrial capital, food production, resourceconsumption, and pollution. To keep track of these interacting entities and to project their possiblepaths into the future they created a computer model called World3.

The results of the study were described for the general public in The Limits to Growth. The bookcreated a furore. Parliaments and scientific societies debated it. A major oil company sponsored aseries of advertisements criticising it; another set up an annual prize for the best studies expandingupon it. It was interpreted by many as a prediction of doom, but it was not a prediction at all. It wasnot about a preordained future, but about a choice. It contained a warning, but also a message ofpromise. The three summary conclusions written in 1972 were:

1. If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production,and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reachedsometime within the next 100 years. The most probable result will be a sudden anduncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.

2. It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economicstability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designedso that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has anequal opportunity to realize his or her individual human potential.

3. If the world's people decide to strive for this second outcome rather than the first, the soonerthey begin working to attain it, the greater will be their chances of success.

(20 years later they published a sequel to the book titled Beyond the Limits.)

The 1972 Stockholm Conference

Acting on a proposal from Sweden, the UN General Assembly in 1968 called for an internationalconference to examine "problems of the human environment...and also to identify those aspects of itthat can only, or best be solved through international co-operation and agreement." The UNConference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in early June 1972. The Stockholmmeeting was the first global conference on the environment, indeed the first world conference tofocus on a single issue.

The Brundtland Report (1987)

Dr Brundtland chaired, starting in 1983, the World Commission on Environment and Development,which coined the concept of "sustainable development" and made recommendations leading to the


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Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Brundtland report 1987 defined the concept ofsustainable development as: Development that meets the needs of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. (Presently Dr Brundtland is theDirector-General of the World Health Organization)

The Rio Summit (1992)The objective of the Rio Earth Summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the 4 - 14June 1992, was to examine the state of the environment and development since the 1972 UN(United Nations) Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. This summit becameknown by a number of different names:

UNCED - The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development The Earth Summit Rio

The Earth Summit was the largest and probably the most complex conference ever organised by theUN. It was the largest gathering of heads of state in history, as it was attended by 178 governments

and there were some 120 heads of state at the Summit.The Earth Summit was unprecedented in bringing together people from all walks of life, cultures,political systems, and environmental - development experiences.

The purpose of UNCED, was to "elaborate strategies and measures to halt and reverse the effects ofenvironmental degradation in the context of increased national and international efforts to promotesustainable and environmentally sound development in all countries." It addressed: "problems thatare planetary in scope that cannot be resolved by traditional diplomacy that pits one region againstthe others." The key issues addressed are expressed in the form of 5 documents:

The Convention on Climate Change The Convention on Biological Diversity The Statement of Forest Principles The Rio Declaration Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is a blueprint for sustainable development into the 21st Century. At Rio an undertakingwas given that local councils would produce their own plan - a Local Agenda 21. This wouldinvolve consulting with the community, because it is the people in the area who have the localknowledge needed to make sensible decisions for their future.

Agenda 21 is a guide for individuals, businesses and governments in making choices for

development that help society and the environment. If we do not tackle the issues it concerns, we allface higher and higher levels of human suffering and damage to the world we live in. Note how itgoes further than just looking at the environment - social factors are seen as very important as well.

The Kyoto TreatyOn December 11, 1997 an international agreement to combat climate change was negotiated by 171countries in Kyoto, Japan. As the first legally-binding protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,it is an important first step towards reversing the growing threat of global climate change. TheTreaty adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which is a commitment to cutting greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4,and NOx) emissions from 1990 levels by 2012. The European Union committed itself to 8% cutting,USA 7%, and Japan 6%.


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5 The EU policy on environmentProtection of the environment is one of the major challenges facing Europe. Community actiondeveloped over the years until the Treaty on European Union conferred on it the status of a policy.The range of environmental instruments available has expanded as environmental policy hasdeveloped. The Community adopted framework legislation providing for a high level of

environmental protection while guaranteeing the operation of the internal market. It has introduceda financial instrument: the Life Programme, and technical instruments: eco-labelling, theCommunity system of environmental management and auditing system for assessment of the effectsof public and private projects on the environment.

The Sixth Environment Action Programme defines the priorities and objectives of Communityenvironmental policy up to 2010 and beyond, and describes the measures to be taken to helpimplement the European Union's sustainable development strategy (Commission of the EuropeanCommunities 2001). The programme has been guided by the Fifth Environment Action Programme(European Council 1998). The Sixth Environment Action Programme focuses on four priority areas

for action: climate change; biodiversity; environment and health; and sustainable management ofresources and wastes. The objective is to ensure that the consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources does not exceed the carrying capacity of the environment, and to achieve adecoupling of resource use from economic growth, through significantly improved resourceefficiency and the reduction of waste. With regard to waste, the specific target is to reduce thequantity going to final disposal by 20% by 2010, and 50% by 2050.

The actions to be undertaken are as follows (Commission of the European Communities 2001):

The development of a strategy for the sustainable management of resources by laying downpriorities and reducing consumption;

The taxation of resource use; The removal of subsidies that encourage the overuse of resources; The integration of resource efficiency considerations into integrated product policy,

eco-labelling schemes, environmental assessment schemes, etc.;

Establishing a strategy for the recycling of waste; The improvement of existing waste management schemes and investment in

quantitative and qualitative prevention;

The integration of waste prevention into the integrated product policy and theCommunity strategy on chemicals.

5.1Waste legislation in the European UnionTo date, European action in the waste field has mainly taken the form of legislation. Other measuressupported by the EC to improve the European waste situation include technical research, recyclingindustries, training, awareness-raising actions and exchange of good practices. While these actionshave prevented the situation from becoming even worse than it is today, waste generation is still toohigh and is rising annually. For years, there has been too little action on the European wasteproblem and inadequate planning for an optimal solution. As far back as 1975, Communitylegislation required Member States to develop comprehensive waste management plans, and 25years on, little has progressed. The situation within the EU regarding waste management continuesto be unsatisfactory. (European Communities 1999.)

Protection of the environment and natural resources has steadily grown since the 1980s. As a result,a range of measures ranging from legislation, financial instruments, etc. has been undertaken,


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especially at the European level. There is no blueprint which can be applied in every situation, butthe EU has firm principles upon which its approach to waste management is based. These include(European Communities 1999):

Prevention principle waste production must be minimised and avoided where possible. Producer responsibility and polluter pays principle those who produce the waste or

contaminate the environment should pay the full costs of their actions.

Precaution principle we should anticipate potential problems. Proximity principle waste should be disposed of as closely as possible to where it is

produced (the goal of which is to prohibit waste transport to, and disposal in countrieswith lower environmental standards).

European institutions have taken a number of steps. The most important regulations are summarisedin Table 3.

Table 3 The most important waste-related regulations in the EU.

Council Directive on Waste

Waste Directive(European Council 1991a)

The Framework Directive on waste, provides definitions of the most

important concepts, and sets out categories of waste in its Annex I.

The Regulation on thesupervision and control of

transfrontier waste shipments(European Council 1993)

The regulation sets out controls for the shipment of waste. The penaltiesfor illegal trafficking are left to member states' responsibility.

The Directive on Packaging andPackaging Waste

PackagingDirective(European Council 1994)

The Directive sets targets for recovery and recycling and proposes that amarking scheme for packaging be set up. It requires that 50-65w% of thepackaging waste shall be recovered. Within this, 25-45w% of packagingmaterials shall be recycled, with a minimum of 15w% for each material.

The EC Directive on IntegratedPollution Prevention andControl IPPC Directive(European Council 1996)

The purpose is to achieve integrated prevention and control of pollutionarising from activities listed in Annex 1 of the Directive, through permitsto be issued by the Member States. The Polluting Emissions Register(PER) inventory is required to be to reported in 2002. The results of theEuropean PER would be fed into the Integrated Emissions Inventory(IEI).

The Directive on the Landfillingof Waste

Landfill Directive(European Council 1999)

Adopted on April 27, 1999, divides landfills into three classes (landfillfor hazardous, non-hazardous, and inert waste) and provides for the firsttime common requirements for all 15 Member States. One significantelement is the requirement of drastic reduction of biodegradable wastegoing to landfill: to 75w% by 5 years, 50w% by 8, and 35w% by 15years.

Directive on End-of-Life Vehicles(European Council 2000c)

This Directive of September 18, 2000, prescribes that Member Statesshould ensure that the last holder and/or owner can deliver the end-of lifevehicle to an authorised treatment facility without any cost as a result ofthe vehicle having no or a negative, market value.

Proposal for EC Directives onWaste Electrical and Electronic

Equipment and on the restrictionof the use of certain hazardous

substances in electrical andelectronic equipment

(European Council 2001d)

Main areas of the proposal adopted on June 13, 2000, were: separatecollection goals to be met by January 1st, 2006; responsibility for thetreatment and recovery of WEEE is placed on the producer; specificrecovery rates are to be met by January 1st, 2006; Hazardous Substancesproposal requires the substitution of Pb, Hg, Cd, Cr VI, and certain flameretardants (PBB, PBDE) by January 1st, 2008.


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There is a range of new regulations that have been proposed recently, some examples listed below:

Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive of 11 March 2004 on the type-approval of motor vehicles with regard to their re-usability, recyclability and recoverabilityand amending Council Directive 70/156/EEC.

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and Council on Shipments of WasteCOM(2003)379

Proposal for a Directive European Parliament and Council on the management of waste fromthe extractive industries COM(2003) 319

Proposal for a Directive European Parliament and Council on establishing a framework forthe setting of Eco-design requirements for Energy- Using Products and amending CouncilDirective 92/42/EEC COM(2003)453

In addition, noteworthy are the various green and white paper at the EU. Green papers arediscussion papers published by the Commission on a specific policy area. An examples is:

Green Paper on Energy Efficiency or Doing More With Less COM(2005) 265, June 2005White papers are documents containing proposals for Community action in a specific area, such as:

White Paper on the Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy COM(2001) 88, February 2001:The Commission proposes that existing and new substances should in the future, followingthe phasing in of existing substances until 2012, be subject to the same procedure under asingle system. The proposed system is called REACH, for the Registration, Evaluation andAuthorisation ofCHemicals.

White paper on Food Safety COM(1999) 719, January 2000Thematic strategiesThe European Commission published on 21 December 2005 a Proposal for a Directive of the

European Parliament and the Council on Waste (COM(2005) 667 final) This strategy is one of theseven thematic strategies programmed by the 6th Environmental Action Plan. This long-termstrategy aims to help Europe become a recycling society that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste asa resource. The Commission also published 2 thematic strategies on the same day:

Thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste COM(2005)666o As a first step, the Commission proposes revising the 1975 Waste Framework

Directive to set recycling standards and to include a waste prevention strategy. Thisrevision will also merge, streamline and clarify legislation, contributing to betterregulation

Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources COM(2005)670o The objective of the Thematic Strategy on the sustainable use of natural resources is

to reduce the environmental impacts associated with resource use and to do so in agrowing economy.

5.2Waste legislation in FinlandThe Waste Management Act (Valtioneuvosto 1978), which came into force in 1979, was the firstact in Finland dealing specifically with waste management. After Finland joined the EuropeanEconomic Area in 1994, and the European Union in 1995 the waste legislation had to be reformedto bring it in line with corresponding European Community legislation. The new Waste Act(Valtioneuvosto 1993a) and Waste Decree (Valtioneuvosto 1993b), which came into force onJanuary 1st, 1994, implementing the provisions of Council Directive on Waste (European Council

1991a) on hazardous waste, and Council Regulation on the supervision and control of trans-frontiershipments of waste (European Council 1993).


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Compared with the earlier Waste Act, the new Act emphasises more preventive measures forminimising the waste generated and diminishing the harmful properties of waste. The Act alsorequires the recovery of waste if this is technically and economically feasible, primarily in the formof materials and, secondarily, as energy.

As the proposal for the new framework directive waste as well as the thematic strategy on wasteprevention and recycling prescribe obligation for EU Member States to develop national wasteprevention programmes, presently the work is in progress on preparing Finlands new waste act(VALTSU), which shall include measures on waste prevention.

5.3Relevant definitions in legislationIt is agreed, is that common terminology and a definition of waste are needed in order to improvethe efficiency of waste management in the Community. The definitions of Council Directive91/156/EEC of March 18 1991 amending Directive 75/442/EEC on Waste, Article 1, are collectedin Table 4. The Waste Directive states in its Article 3 (European Council 1991a) that Member

States shall take appropriate measures to encourage:

Firstly: the prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness by:a) the development of clean technologies more sparing in their use of natural resources;b) the technical development and marketing of products designed so as to make no contribution or

to make the smallest possible contribution, by the nature of their manufacture, use or finaldisposal, to increasing the amount or harmfulness of waste and pollution hazards;

c) the development of appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substancescontained in waste destined for recovery.

Secondly:

d) the recovery of waste by means of recycling, re-use or reclamation or any other process with aview to extracting secondary raw materials,

e) or the use of waste as a source of energy.Table 4 Definitions provided by Council Directive 91/156/EEC on Waste (European Council 1991a).

Waste shall mean any substance or object in the categories set out in Annex I which the holderdiscards or intends or is required to discard.

Producer shall mean anyone whose activities produce waste ("original producer") and/or anyone whocarries out pre-processing, mixing or other operations resulting in a change in the nature orcomposition of this waste.

Holder shall mean the producer of the waste or the natural or legal person who is in possession of it.Management shall mean the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste, including the

supervision of such operations and after-care of disposal sites.Disposal shall mean any of the operations provided for in Annex IIA.

Recovery shall mean any of the operations provided for in Annex IIB.Collection shall mean the gathering, sorting and/or mixing of waste for the purpose of transport.

The proposal for the new framework directive (COM(2005)667 final) includes some newdefinitions and amendments to old definitions:

Waste shall mean any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is requiredto discard.

Re-use means any recovery operation by which products or components that have becomewaste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived


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Recycling means the recovery of waste into products, materials or substances whether forthe original or other purposes. It does not include energy recovery.

Recovery: Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that all wasteundergoes operations that result in it serving a useful purpose in replacing, whether in theplant or in the wider economy, other resources which would have been used to fulfil that

function, or in it being prepared for such a use, hereinafter recovery operations. They shallregard as recovery operations at least the operations listed in Annex II

Disposal: MS shall regard as disposal operations at least the operations listed in Annex I,even where the operation has as a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances orenergy

There is a lot of turmoil regarding the proposed definitions, especially with that of re-use, as itseems to indicate that before you re-use something, by definition it used to be waste first.

5.4The problems with the definition of wasteThe waste regulations within the EU are generally considered to have had, so far, a positive effecton the environment. Present definitions of waste have created legal disputes in Europe as well asoverseas. It is because a substance, when defined as waste, is often restricted in its transport, saleand re-use. Industry has voiced serious concerns that definitions may become a barrier to efficientand sustainable European waste management. Defining a material as waste, or secondary rawmaterial, bears many consequences on what is permissive or not, what administrative proceduresapply to its transport, export or processing, and what costs will be incurred. When a thing is labelledas waste, it is going to be handled as waste, thus despite its explicit wish of waste prevention,implicitly legislation amasses waste.

A large part of the problem comes from the fact that the current definition of waste includes

materials that were long considered by some actors as not being wastes. Different interpretations ofthe definition of waste interfere with long-established practices recycling. The consequences are feltat environmental, economic and even world trade levels. Waste regulation should be in line with theobjectives of European policy, i.e. sustainable development, conservation of natural resources,environment and public health protection, employment and economic growth.

5.5Re-defining wasteOne could say that waste is just something that we have not yet figured out utilization for. Thiswould indicate that being waste is a temporary failing that needs to be remedied. Whether anoutcome from an industrial process is considered product or waste depends on if it has been made

for a Purpose. This suggests that waste could be transformed into non-waste by assigning it aPurpose, that is, find a use for it. Indeed historical evidence shows that the development of wasteutilization is as old as technology itself (Desrochers 2002). Purposeful products can also becomewastes at the end their useful lives. This can happen either because they have fulfilled their purpose(an empty beer can), or because they are not able to fulfil their purpose anymore due to damage instructure (a broken tyre), or because their temporal state (an expired battery). Further yet,consumers are likely to dispose functional things just for the lack of care or attention. Analysingthese reasons of wastes, it has been established that there are four waste classes (Table 5).


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Table 5 Classes of waste (Pongrcz & Pohjola 1997)2

Class 1 Non-wanted things, created not intended, or not avoided, with no Purpose.

Class 2 Things that were given a finite Purpose, thus destined to become useless after fulfilling it.

Class 3 Things with well-defined Purpose, but their Performance ceased being acceptable.

Class 4 Things with well-defined Purpose, and acceptable Performance, but their users failed touse them for their intended Purpose.

Class 1 are those accidental, unavoidable or concomitant compounds that have not been createdpurposefully, but they are concomitant with a purposeful industrial activity. Gaseous emissionsbelong to this class. Class 2 contains artefacts that have been created for a specific, however,temporary Purpose. Upon fulfilling that Purpose, they become waste. Single use products such asnon-refillable packaging non-rechargeable batteries are the major members of this class. Class 3 aregenerally artefacts that have been created to be durable, however either their Structure got damagedin use, or in time their state has been altered, thus they are not able to Perform with respect to their

original Purpose. A broken vase, a clogged filter, or a fused wiring would be examples of suchstructural damage. State change can also inhibit further performance; an evaporated solvent anevaporated solvent would not be as useful as a liquid one. Finally, Class 4 includes discarded thingsthat have been rendered waste only because their owner has failed to use them. In some cases, theaction is considerate, such as throwing away an old-fashioned piece of clothing or changing amobile phone for a trendier one. In other cases, the failure is unwilling; consider the mustard left inthe tube that cannot be squeezed out. Conversely, if too much mustard is squeezed out and theleftover is flushed down the drain, the failure is use in excess. This class points out the importanceof responsible human action. Based on this taxonomy of waste, the definition for waste was offeredas (Pongrcz and Pohjola 1997):

Def.1 Waste is a man-made thing that has no Purpose; or is not able to performwith respect to its Purpose.

To some respect, according to this definition waste is in the eye of the beholder, as humans assignPurpose and humans evaluate Performance. However, this description also allows for the possibilityof the waste being turned into a non-waste, and emphasizes that being waste is a temporary failingthat needs to be remedied.

The above waste description explains the reasons why things became waste. The description ofwaste as a thing which the owner failed to use for its intended Purpose, highlights the fact that itwas because of the wrongful action of the owner why the thing became waste. When we describewaste emission as a thing to which its producer has not assigned a Purpose, we point out the error

of the producer. While a waste of the type: thing which is not performing in respect to its originalPurpose due to an irreversible structural change explains the reasons why the thing became waste.

It appears that things become waste either due to a wrongful action of a human, or because of a faultin the Structure of the thing that deprives it of its functionality. Waste can thus be defined withreference to humans as (Pongrcz 2002):

Def.2 Waste is a thing that is in the given time and place, in its actual Structure

and State, not useful to its owner, or an output that has no owner and no

Purpose.

2 This taxonomy uses the PSSP language, according to which every real thing can be described as onobject with the following necessary and sufficient attributes: Purpose, Structure, State and Performance.


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This definition points out the dynamic nature of waste: the same thing can be waste or non-wastefor different persons, in different places and different times. Responsible ownership is a centralissue in waste management. Ownership can make and unmake wastes. Legislation recognizes wastewhen owners cede their ownership over them. This is of central importance for the reason ofcontrolling the conditions of abandonment. Recycling is said to be the means of transforming waste

to non-waste (Eurostat 2005), however, representatives of Finnish industry (e.g. Hasenson 2004,Pekkarinen 2004) would argue that waste regulation sometimes sets barriers when they wish to doso. It is because defining a material as waste, or secondary raw material, bears many consequenceson what is permissive or not, what administrative procedures apply to its transport, export orprocessing, and what costs will be incurred. Clear definitions about the conditions when wastescede to be wastes are lacking, therefore, we need to ask next, what is a non-waste?

5.6Defining non-wasteIt is argued that the taxonomy of Table 5, as well as definitions 1 and 2 describe waste withoutdoubt. It can then be argued that everything outside of these definitions is a non-waste. Whenever

there is an owner who intends to use a thing for a Purpose, or the owner intends to manipulate thething to be able to perform with respect to its Purpose, it cannot be considered waste any longer,since it does then not belong to any of the waste classes. In the process when a waste material isused to manufacture a new product, it can be said that waste ceases being waste as soon as theproperties of the new product are formed and this product becomes functional with respect to itsPurpose. Non-waste was defined as (Pongrcz 2002):

Def.3 Non-waste is an object which has been assigned a Purpose by its (or a

potential) owner, and this owner will either use it for that Purpose, or by

adjustment of State or Structure, ensure that the object will be able to

perform in respect to the assigned Purpose.

It was suggested that things covered by this definition shall not be considered waste, and be exemptfrom regulative restrictions regarding waste.

5.7Can every waste be turned into non-waste?Conceptually, wastes of Definition 1 can be turned into non-waste of Definition 3. Naturally, we arefar from the technical capacity and efficacy to actually do this in practice. There may be limitations,such as the structural damage of a thing of waste Class 3 being non-repairable, or the thing of wasteClass 4 being non-retrievable. However, if there is a possibility, we shall strive towards it. Theconceptual solutions to turn wastes no non-wastes are summarized in Table 6.

Table 6 Turning waste to non-waste (Pongrcz 2002)

Waste class Solution to be assigned

Class 1 Waste to be assigned a Purpose.

Class 2 Waste to be assigned a second Purpose.

Class 3 Waste requires repair of Structure or adjustment of State.

Class 4 Waste requires a new owner who will use it for the intended Purpose, or will assign anew Purpose.

Even if none of the conceptual schemes presented in Table 2 are applicable, there are no ultimate

wastes. The life cycle of the artefact ends with it becoming a natural thing. When a waste is left to


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decompose or dissipate in nature, and its properties can no longer be recognised as being anartefact, it can be argued that it is a natural thing.

5.8Re-defining waste managementIt has been determined that the Purpose of waste management is protection of the environment andconservation of resources (Pongrcz 2002). This goal is the basis of describing waste managementas follows:

Def. 4 Waste management control of waste-related activities, with the purpose

of resources conservation and environmental protection

Waste-related activities include waste creating processes, waste handling, as well as wasteutilisation. Control of these activities occurs by adjustment of the Purpose of waste, or manipulatingthe Structure or State of waste. Waste legislation has been created to enforce the achievement ofthis Purpose, by setting goals for waste management, e.g. by fixing recycling rates to be achieved,setting targets to reduce emissions, prescribing the goal of stabilising waste production at a given

level, or banning the export of certain categories of waste, etc.

We can accept that waste management (collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste,including the supervision of such operations and after-care of disposal sites) as defined by theWaste Directive (91/156/EEC), is the summary of actual activity upon waste. However, sustainablewaste management also involves strategic planning and decision making to determine best action;prescribing options and assessing their effects and consequences; and choosing the best treatmentoption, with taking into consideration legislation. At all times, one shall keep in mind thatconservation of resources and prevention of the contamination of environment can be achieved bywaste management through applying the proper hierarchy: waste prevention first, followed byrecovery and, ultimately, safe disposal.

5.9The role of waste minimisationMoving toward waste minimisation requires that the firm commits itself to increasing theproportion of non-waste leaving the process. the following preventive options can be assigned to thefour classes of waste.

5.9.1Prevent creating things with no PurposeWhen assignation of a new Purpose is not possible, the aim is then to reduce the amount of wastethat is produced with no Purpose. Enhancement of the environmental performance of the productionprocess shall aim at reducing emissions and/or substituting potentially dangerous compounds to

reduce the toxicity of waste. Design for the Environment (DFE), in particular Design for Safety isrequired. Aiming at a process that involves minimal waste production, three options have to beconsidered. Firstly, reducing the use of natural resources since mining is a major solid wasteproducer. Closed- as well as open-loop recycling can contribute to this end. Secondly, reduction ofenergy use, given that generating energy involves waste-creating that can be allocated to theproduct. Thirdly, reduce water consumption as wastewater treatment involves sludge production. Apaper on the effectiveness of waste minimisation clubs in reducing the demand for water revealedthat companies were able to reduce water consumption by approximately 30% (Holt et al. 2000).Enhancing the logistics of the production process can also greatly contribute to a more efficientproduction, which in turn contributes to waste reduction.


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5.9.2Prevent creating things with a single finite PurposeReduction of waste in this class requires product design enhancement and extending designerresponsibility. The future Purpose of the product when it becomes waste can be planned using DFEmethods, for example, Design for Materials Recyclability, Design for Incineration, or Design forDisposal. In the case of packaging, especially that of plastics, feedstock recycling is an ideal

utilisation of difficult-to-recycle plastics, since energy recovery also contributes to wasteminimisation by avoiding usage of fossil fuels, as their acquisition also involves waste creation. Inthe case of refillable packaging, some economic instruments can also help reduce waste. Monetarydeposits, for example, will motivate consumers to return the waste package.

5.9.3Prevent creating things that cease performingIncreased functionality of products can postpone its transformation to waste. If the loss ofPerformance is only due to a faulty part, changing that part is an option. To that end, Design forRefurbishment is recommended. When refurbishment is not viable, recovery of the usefulconstituent parts is preferred. Design for Disassembly can help achieve this. There is also a need forlegal instruments, i.e., product take-back responsibilities so that the consumer has a possibility toreturn a non-functional product (electronic appliances, cars, etc.) to the manufacturer. Anotheroption is leasing the product instead of selling to the consumer, a practice widespread in the use ofcopier machines, and introduced to cars as well. Use of economic instruments, such as deposits is,again, also recommended.

5.9.4Preventing owners from failing use things for their PurposeEnhancing the environmental performance and/or functionality may make the product moredesirable to the owner, or may make it easier to find a new owner. Hence the owner would be lessprone to give up ownership of the product. Use of legal instruments, such as increasing ownerresponsibility can prevent uncontrolled abandonment of ownership. In summary, waste

minimisation requires innovative process design and product design as well as the use of economicand legal instruments. They are listed in Table 7.

Table 7 Instruments for waste minimisation

Process design enhancements Increase process efficiency,Substitution of dangerous compounds,Design for Process Safety,Minimisation of the use of virgin materials,Minimisation of energy use,Minimisation of water use.

Product design changes Increase functionality of the product,

Increase the environmental performance of the product,DFE: Design for Refurbishment/ Disassembly/ Material Recycling/Incineration/ Disposal, etc.

Economic and legal instrument Deposit/refund systems,Product take-back responsibility,Increased owner responsibility.

Remember that the Council Directive on Waste, defines waste management as:Waste management shall mean collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste,

including the supervision of such operations and after-care of disposal sites.

This definition of waste management has an organisational approach. It is concerned about theexisting amount of waste, trying to minimise the human-waste or environment-waste interface, to


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minimise potential impact. It must be noted that this approach is very useful and important. It doesnot go into the depth of the concept, does not try to explain or clarify the concept, but that is not itsrole either. Self-confessedly, the role is to protect human health and the environment. In thiscontext, the environment is to mean the whole of the natural world inhabited by living organisms,considered vulnerable to pollution. Cheyne and Purdue (1995) argue that waste management is

concerned not only with final disposal of waste but with the whole cycle of waste creation,transport, storage, treatment and recovery, and does so in order prevent pollution and harm frompollution taking place. Waste management strategies, therefore, should include a wide range ofpolicies, such as assignment of liability, duty of care, controls over collection, transport anddisposal and, not the last, reduction and/or elimination of waste.

Semantically, the expression is an interesting use of words. To manage is, according to theMerriam-Websters Dictionary Online: to handle or direct with a degree of skill; to work upon ortry to alter for a purpose; to succeed in accomplishing or to direct or carry on business or affairs.While management is defined as: judicious use of means to achieve an end. It appears fromthese definitions that management is control of activities, while the expression of waste

management semantically suggests that it is control of materials.

Another question raised is, if the aim of management is to achieve an end, what would be that end,and what then is the aim of waste management? The purpose of waste management is protection ofthe environment, human health and natural resources. Waste management shall be understood as asystem, providing medium for making changes in the way people behave with respect to waste.(Pongrcz & Pohjola 1999a.) It has been concluded that waste management can be understood as:

Definition 5 Waste management is control of waste-related activities with the aim of protectingthe environment and resources conservation.

Waste-related activities include waste-creating processes, waste handling as well as wasteutilisation. Control of these activities occurs based on the considerations prescribed earlier: Purposereadjustment; Structure and State manipulation. It is important that the main objective of wastemanagement is, besides waste avoidance, turning wastes into non-wastes and preventing waste fromfinal disposal, especially of such disposal which does not utilise waste by any means.

6 The waste management hierarchyThe European Council in its Waste Directive of 1991 sets the hierarchy of waste managementoptions as follows:

1. waste prevention2. recovery3. safe disposal

The OECD concluded that, even when conventional environmental and waste policy approacheshave succeeded in attaining their own specific objectives, they have not been sufficient towardoverall waste reduction. OECD-wide recycling has been increasing, but without waste preventionefforts, a near doubling of municipal waste within the OECD area is expected within the next 20years. At a workshop in Berlin organised by the OECD in 1996, when looking for a definition ofwaste minimization, they defined the elements of waste management hierarchy as seen in Figure 6.This figure has since been widely accepted as the definition of the waste management hierarchy.


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Figure 5 Waste prevention vs. minimization defined by the OECD in 1996

6.1Waste preventionThe consensus understanding of waste prevention achieved by OECD countries (OECD 1998) canbe broken down into three types of actions:

1. Strict Avoidance2. Reduction at Source3. Product Re-use

The first-ever OECD workshop devoted specifically to waste prevention was held in 1999; and aReference Manual on strategic waste prevention was published to assist governments with actionsthat support increased resource efficiency and sustainable development. (OECD 2000.)

6.1.1Strict avoidanceStrict Avoidance involves the complete prevention of waste generation by virtual

elimination of hazardous substances or by reducing material or energy intensity in

production, consumption, and distribution.

Examples of strict avoidance include those that address: Hazard, such as:

Avoiding and/or substituting materials that are hazardous to humans or to the environment(e.g., through bans on PCBs and ozone-depleting substances, or virtual elimination of toxicorganochlorines released in bleached pulp mill effluents).

Quantity, such as:Avoiding use of materials or stages of production/consumption (e.g., through eliminatinginterim packaging for cosmetics and toothpaste, or substitution of continuous casting for

ingot casting at steelworks).


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6.1.2Reduction at source Reduction at source involves minimising use of toxic or harmful substances and/or

minimising material or energy consumption.

Examples of reduction at source include those that address: Hazard, such as:

o Reducing the use of harmful substances in products, in production and sales systems,and in consumption and disposal systems, and

o Reducing the use of substances that hinder re-use or recycling (e.g. "Post-its onpaper, use of chlorinated solvents as cleansing agents).

Quantity, such as:o Using smaller amounts of resources to provide the same product or service (e.g.

reducing foil thickness, introducing re-use or refill systems, miniaturisation,resource-orientated purchasing and consumption); and

o Using less resource-dependent construction principles and materials.6.1.3Waste prevention measures

The thematic strategy on waste prevention and recycling (COM(2005)666) defines a range ofprevention measures to be applied at different strategic levels. These are:

Measures that can affect the framework conditions related to the generation of waste1. The use of planning measures, or other economic instruments affecting the

availability and price of primary resources.2. The promotion of research and development into the area of achieving cleaner and

less wasteful products and technologies and the dissemination and use of the results of

such research and development.3. The development of effective and meaningful indicators of the environmentalpressures associated with the generation of waste at all levels, from productcomparisons through action by local authorities to national measures.

Measures that can affect the design and production phase:1. The promotion of eco-design2. The provision of information on waste prevention techniques, facilitating BAT3. Organise training of competent authorities on waste prevention4. The inclusion of measures to prevent waste production at installations, inc. waste

prevention assessments or plans.

5. Use of awareness campaigns or the provision of financial, decision making or othersupport to businesses.6. Such measures are likely to be particularly effective aimed at SMEs and work

through established business networks.7. Use of voluntary agreements, consumer/producer panels or industrial sectors set their

own waste prevention plans8. The promotion of creditable EMS, inc. ISO 14001.

Measures that can affect the consumption and use phase1. Economic instruments such as incentives for clean purchases2. The use of awareness campaigns directed at the general public3. The promotion of creditable eco-labels


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4. Use of product panels on the availability of waste prevention information andproducts with a lower environmental impact

5. Integration of environmental and waste prevention criteria into calls for tenders andcontracts public and corporate procurement

6. The promotion of the re-use and/or repair of appropriate discarded products, notablythrough the establishment or support of repair/re-use networks

It needs to be remembered that the effects of waste prevention actions are not visible immediately;sometimes the effects are felt years later. They are also difficult to measure, and the thematicstrategy is not planning to prescribe EU waste prevention targets as this would not be the mosteffective way to foster waste prevention. Such targets fail to address the complexity ofenvironmental impact. The weight of waste could be reduced yet the environmental impact couldincrease, whereas small weight reductions can bring large reductions in environmental impact. Thestrategy prescribes that Member States should develop waste prevention programmes in the contextof sustainable production and consumption.

6.2Waste minimizationAccording to terminological work undertaken at OECD, waste minimisation is a broader termthan waste prevention (see Figure 6) in that it includes recycling. Waste minimisation, accordingto which it encompasses these three elements in the following order or priority (Riemer &Kristoffersen 1999):

preventing and/or reducing the generation of waste at source; improving the quality of the waste generated, such as reducing the hazard; and encouraging re-use, recycling and recovery.

The OECD Definition of waste minimisation is:

Waste minimisation is preventing and/or reducing the generation of waste at the source;improving the quality of waste generated, such as reducing the hazard, and encouraging

re-use, recycling, and recovery.

Waste minimization thus includes both waste prevention and recycling. It needs to be highlightedthough, that waste minimization should not be equalled with diversion from landfill only, which is asort of end of pipe action that assigns some recovery option to existing waste. Both wasteprevention and waste minimization should be primarily viewed as actions that occur beforeproducts or materials are identified or recognised as waste.

6.3Re-useRe-use needs a special consideration under present circumstances, as for the last 10 year theOECDs hierarchy was accepted according to which product re-use is a preventive option, however,the new waste framework directive considers it a recovery option. As there is no consensus to date,both of the definitions will be provided:

OECD definition (OECD 2000):

Product re-use involves the multiple use of a product in its original form, for its

original purpose or for an alternative, with or without reconditioning.

Examples of product re-use include those that address:


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Re-use after reconditioning, such as refilling glass or plastic bottles after washing, and usingempty adhesive barrels as oil barrels after reconditioning.

Re-use without reconditioning, such as using shopping bags more than once.The definition of re-use in the new waste framework directive is:

Re-use means any recovery operation by which products or components that have

become waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceivedNote that it is yet a proposal, this will be official definition of re-use only when the proposal will beaccepted.

6.4RecyclingRecycling is defined as (European Council 1994):

Recycling shall mean the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original

purpose, or for other purposes, including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery.

It is useful to distinguish three different forms of recycling: closed-loop recycling, open-looprecycling, and down-cycling, which can be explained as follows (Lox 1994)

Closed-loop recycling is a recycling process in which a waste material is used for the samepurpose as the original purpose or for another purpose requiring at least as severe properties asthe previous application so that, after one or several uses, this material can be used back againfor the original purpose.

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