The True Cost of MRFs

I think mid Devon DC where I live are a bit lazy when it comes to recycling. They only take the stuff that is easy to recycle namely the metals and glass and leave everything else. They really should invest in a MRF (14/12/09: My views have since changed on this), to help sort their waste. I wonder how long a MRF take to pay for its self? I will Find OUT XXX.

(From: WRAP recovering value from MRFs)

Graph: Big is better. There is little said about detailed costs, but a MRF in mole valley cost £3million, and has a processing charge of £6 -20 a tones, this is on top of any money back from sale of materials. So the answer is they DON’T pay for themselves, the tax payer does.

Recycling is a fairly space hungry activity we live in a small (by UK standards) terrace house. We don’t have space to keep lots of different bins for different bins for sorting, and overriding all this is time. I am working 8 hours plus 4 hours commuting 1 hour eating 1hour with family, and a man needs to sleep.

People can't be bothered to reycle.

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Waste Regulations are Working

I personally have noticed that Waste policies in the UK are making a change to the
way I work, a few weeks back I rung up for a price on a skip to take some concrete away price was £125, and then I thought I’d find a price on a mobile crusher for the day, again £125. So being I I was to gain five or more tones of useful aggregate, I went for the crusher. Crusher was towed 30 miles from the site, it weighs five tones. Good? No. Took me pretty much ½ a day to load it. So minus £60.

But I gained £100 of good quality (for the intended purpose) aggregate. So in economic terms I finished up £40 on top. Not bad for a small amount, a larger amount would have worked out even more cost effective.

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The First Environmental Legislation

Environmental Legislation: 1237 was when the first environmental legislation was first put in the effect, and since then countless act, amendments to acts and EU directivities have overlain these to produce a right old mish mash of rules and regulations. To further complicate this common law can be applied to any case / breach deemed necessary.

This legislation however, convoluted does not does not fill me with the same amount of despair as other areas of people-kinds battle with ourselves, it really is making a difference. Landfill volumes are decreasing, and recycling is increasing, a careful set of taxes are pushing people away from landfill. General waste is now costing around £100 a ton to dispose of.

It is interesting to hear that the world economic downturn has helped has helped reduce waste, BUT!! that is because the turnover is lower, not because people are better at using less waste!

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Politicians and their muddled thinking.

When will green thinking become unified, we cannot put aside our good farmland for nature projects whilst we rely on imports. It’s not fair that we hurtle towards the 80% emissions cuts whilst we chow down on Brazilian beef cooked in a Chinese oven with French electricity. LDV and Rover will add to these carbon savings, but in their place we have unemployment and hundreds of failing subsidiary businesses that depended on their custom. We must see new jobs created in green industries in the UK; there must be jobs. If we build a solar panel in England and it is 5% less efficient and 5% more money than the German one then, that is fine it is British and will get better in time.

Interference with farming annoys me; British farms should be producing more food WHY? So we don’t have to IMPORT everything. 90% of apples are foreign, beef from brazil, lamb from New Zealand, and we are flooding good farm land for marsh warblers, and fencing off streams to increase bio diversity, does any one stop to think of the container ship laboring through heavy seas from the southern hemisphere, laden with low welfare standard meat, burning heavy marine oils as it does so?

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Carbon Accounting and Emisssions Factors. Whats that?

Carbon Accounting: As I understand it this is the umbrella term for embodied carbon and operational carbon. It depends on what project you are building as to which is the most important consideration. For a pumping station you may which to consider lavishing you budget on some efficient pumps, as you operational carbon use will be high otherwise, in comparison spending an unnecessary amount on low carbon building materials will only save small amounts, so it is more efficient use of money, in terms of carbon (and in the case money) to put you budget in to efficient pumps. A store shed on the other hand will have low operational carbon, so green building materials may be a viable option here.

Emissions Factors: These are the basis of all carbon accounting; they tell you how damaging a process is in term of emissions per unit volume. It is important to use a standardized Emissions factors set, and a presume this is why, DEFRA have released a booklet (downloadable) with lots of emissions factors in it. However, so emissions factors are still on the drawing board, SWW get some of theirs from research groups.

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Evolution = Less Efficiency

What do we really need? (Based on Maslow Hierarchy)

-Water (3 liters a day)
-Food (1500 calories a day)
-Shelter (A tent and some animal firs)

What do we think we need?

-Water (100 liters a day) – (19/01/10: Not counting embodied water in products)
-Food (Three Meals, Hot Drinks, Snacks – 2500 calories a day and more)
-Shelter (Three bedroom semi detached)

. . . . . .and

2 Cars
Annual Holiday
Education
An over lavish Christmas etc etc etc

So the bottom line is that most people their lives about as far away from being sustainable, as you could possibly imagine, and I suppose (to get back on track) people’s needs drive industry to provide what it does.

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Carbon payback scheme areOK?

Although carbon pay back schemes it brought about a decrease in growth for developing countries, that LDCs (Lesser Developed Countries) really still benefited from all of the technology of MDCs and and such there should not be complaints, we polluted our environment and the globe, and that's a shame but it lead to development, and LDCs get the benefits of this development, some might say that people in LDCs for example Botswana want to live a simple life and not to ruin the country by westernising it, but they probably drives a 4x4.

I have met a number of communists in my time, all who say "I'm a communist at heart". . . . they all live in big houses. Stick them in a tiny flat eating lard a cabbage, in Moscow in 1960, and then see if they want to be a communist, its the red wine moment as some call it. . . . .wouldn't it be nice if the world was cadbury.

The fact is people want. They want cars fridges, a nice house with a blender and something to put in that blender, these wants will never stop, so lets get less people on the planet. I think the one child policy in china is a bit harsh as be an only child may have negative psychological affects, a two child policy would stabilise the population and possibly reduce it slowly as some couples would choose to have one, the Chinese guys found it very strange that we get paid for having kids in this country. We have just had our fist child and we get £160 a month from the government and and tax breaks, now that's not a lot to my wife and I but, for a mother who is on social benefit or a low income family it is an incentive to have more kids, fact, this needs to stop. Also these lower social economic groups are generally less well educated, and large families put strain on parenting time which can only lead to social decline.

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Which is the greenest car?