Waste in Domestic Housing as discussed by David Murray of RSP Print E-mail

Waste is a well publicised problem in the house building industry, however it is mainly produced by two channels. There is domestic waste and construction waste, both of which are required to be taken into account. In terms of domestic waste, the UK has one of the worst recycling records in Europe where ‘106 million tones of waste are produced annually in the domestic sector with only around 11% being recycled by the UK’ (Friends of the Earth). Over 75% of domestic waste ends up being dumped in landfill sites, however, under new EU legislation the UK must ensure that less than a third of domestic waste goes to landfill by 2020.
 
In response to the above EU legislation the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (via their 2003 National Waste Plan paper) have set the following targets to be achieved in Scotland:

  • By 2006 to recycle 25% of waste;
  • By 2010 to stop the yearly increase in the amount of waste being produced;
  • By 2020 to collect waste materials for recycling from 90% of households; and
  • By 2020 to have a 55% recycling rate.

Following the analytical results of an investigation into the contents of waste bins, some of the major habits that households in the UK contribute towards the high waste values included:

  1. People still used bin bags to collect rubbish before storing in a wheelie bin. (Scot. Exec.2005)
  2. Disposable nappies contribute to between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes of extra waste dumped in landfill sites in the UK. (Real Nappy Programme 2005).
  3. Up to one third of waste within a typical household ends up in the bin (Jones et al 2005).
  4. An average per household of £420 per year of rotten/uneaten food is thrown out, with the humble lettuce being the top waste food product with 61% of households throwing one away every week. (National Resource and Waste Forum 2004).

Therefore, ways to minimise waste in Scotland has included the ‘Sustainable Housing Design Guide for Scotland’, recommending that developers include in their sustainable strategy provision for compost areas and additional recycling bins in the kitchens of new houses. In addition this, targets have set for all local authorities to ensure that they all improve their performance on recycling effort substantially with ‘targets 2005 to 2006 ranging from the lowest at 18% up to household recycling at 40% for some authorities’ (EAC2003).

However, with all of the different incentives and legislative guidelines, it may well be that the easiest way in Scotland’s waste reduction drive will prove to be in good old fashioned house keeping.