Can we now practice what we preach?
Dave Hughes, ESE World's Managing Director, comments on Scotland's recently introduced Zero Waste legislation.
The theory and ambition is that Zero Waste actions will help Scotland's business community cut costs and meet customer demand for sustainable products and services. It's about reviewing current methods and challenging the norm through the supply chain.
Reducing Scotland's dependence on landfill, cutting CO₂ emissions and conserving natural resources is highly laudable. So, too is helping Scotland's economy grow through the creation of new jobs in low carbon businesses.
The new legislation introduced on the 1st January this year impacts on households, businesses, community groups, local authorities and the wider public sector. It demands change to the way waste is collected and dealt with by those responsible.
Businesses are now required to sort metal, plastic, glass, paper and card for separate collection. That means more collection boxes and bins.
Food businesses which produce more than 50 kg of food waste each week have to ensure it can be collected separately. That rule doesn't apply to rural areas as yet but it still means more collection boxes and bins for those businesses it affects.
Local authorities now have to provide a minimum recycling service to householders and there's a ban on metal, plastic, glass, paper, card and food collections going to landfill. That would appear to require more collection boxes and bins also.
So the assumption might be that the requirement for the manufacture of all those collection boxes and bins will mean a drain on resources.
Have the regulators missed a trick?
If Zero Waste is driven by the need for greater recycling, then why not insist businesses use containers manufactured from recycled product. That really does drive home the benefits of the circular economy. Effectively it means that Scotland would practice what it preaches.
We should all aim to use the resources entrusted to us in a sustainable way. We are a company fully aware of our responsibilities to protect natural resources, so much so, we changed the way we work.
When we produce new bins and containers we aim for minimum CO2 impact. How? We've changed the whole process; from raw materials, through manufacturing, and transport...and back again.
Having been involved in the recycling of more than 4 million wheeled bins, ESE World (formerly Otto) can now produce containers manufactured from 100% recycled material. The ESE World recycling service for old and faulty containers is innovative and unique in Europe.
Unwanted bins are collected at a central point and ground down on the spot, so we're not transporting empty bins. The ground materials are taken to the nearest ESE World production facility and we make new bins.
So, waste removal expenditure is reduced, as are journey times, CO₂ emissions and raw materials costs.
More than four million containers have already been successfully fed back into the recycled material circuit in this way. We too are ambitious about using the word zero.
Visit www.eseworld.co.uk for more information.
