The SLIC idea

 

SLIC (Sorting Locally from Industrial Centres)

 

Ideas for reducing commercial and industrial waste through local sorting

 

 

The current way waste is collected from industrial estates actively discourages reuse, repair and recycling.

 

Any materials collected specifically for reuse or recycling are cherry picked at random, based on market price, not (like domestic waste) on the desirability of waste reduction and recycling. This has an adverse global impact on finite resources and virgin materials.

 

In short, the process is very inefficient, with lorries and vans from all over the UK whizzing about at random, often to collect small quantities of materials, wasting energy while causing congestion, pollution, and danger, and loss of economic benefit to all businesses involved and the nation's economy as a whole!  It unnecessarily contributes to CO2 emissions and climate change, making it harder to meet even Kyoto targets, which a consensus of international scientists agree are seriously inadequate.

 

Environmental issues should, according to John Prescott, be at the heart of our thinking, yet those businesses taking on environmental management plans are still a small minority.

 

Many industrial estates have some form of management organisation.  Sometimes they are linked to another industrial estate nearby, or a group of estates, perhaps by a common owner.  These could be asked - or even required - to include waste minimisation, reuse and recycling in their remit.  A positive attitude would filter through to all businesses in the estate, or group of estates, and joint working would become popular as businesses began to see the pound signs.

 

Virtually all industrial estates have at least one vacant unit at any one time - often several.  It would therefore be no loss to the owner to allocate one unit per estate, or group of estates, as a local Recycling Unit, for gathering and sorting recyclables.

 

Each business could bring redundant materials to the unit. This would only need to be staffed by 

one employee, who might only be needed part-time. Tasks would include cataloguing and sorting the materials, keeping the unit clean and tidy, and acting as a friendly information source for waste management on the estate. Where necessary, this employee could liaise with green business networks, waste clubs, and local authority recycling officers.

 

When there was sufficient quantity of particular materials, the most appropriate and most local organisation (perhaps sourced from The WasteBook - www.wastebook.org  ) could be contacted to collect them. 

 

This employee, or others from the estate, could take some materials to the nearest scrapstore, which would supply teachers from local schools who pay a small subscription and collect materials when they need them.  The local Recycling Unit would itself act like an industrial scrapstore, or transfer station. If there was no local scrapstore, it may be possible to separate a part of the unit to act as a scrapstore for teachers.

 

This would be inexpensive, save money in waste disposal for all businesses on the estate, act to minimise waste, and reclaim a far greater quantity and variety of materials, and send out a message that the estate was well organised, professional and environment-conscious.  It could also form the basis for a Waste Minimisation Strategy for the estate, including green procurement, designing out of waste, and design for end-of-life reuse or recycling.

 

A number of pilot schemes around the country would, over the timescale of this Waste Strategy, make a serious difference in terms of waste minimisation, reuse and recycling, and provide an excellent way to get small to medium sized businesses more involved in the process, and change the all too frequent throw- away culture.

 

It would provide an easily available 'bring site' culture that would spread, and lead to a reduction in fly tipping.  The whole process would be strongly encouraged if the government brought in legislation to

 

·        ensure every local authority, district as well as county, appoints a waste minimisation officer, who would liaise with local businesses and other organisations on reducing waste and energy, recycling, green procurement and other environmental issues

·        require co-ordinated boroughwide recycling collection arrangements for clusters of businesses, which would be particularly useful in estates which focus on the same sector of industry

·        fine companies who throw away anything recyclable

·        increase landfill tax more sharply.

 

Fines could also apply to householders, providing recycling facilities are provided for those materials.

This already occurs in several countries, such as Canada, where it has increased recycling rates substantially.

 

 

"I have a dream" - Martin Luther King

 

SLIC idea by David Oakley-Hill, March 1999, who so far has been unable to develop it due to illness and many other commitments - latest version June 2002

 

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