Measuring prevention

“To those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer … consume the world's resources without regard to effect” said President Barack Obama in his inaugural speech.Only six short months ago, U.S. consumers were routinely described as ‘the engine of the world's economy' and the maximization of consumption was an unquestioned objective of mainstream economics.

Matthew Thomson has been chief executive of London CRN for two years, bringing  over ten years community and social enterprise experience to the re-use, composting and recycling sector. The London network comprises over 200 organisations working in the green economy, public service delivery, regeneration and community engagement.  

Now, with the limits of this approach plainly visible, ‘sustainable consumption' is likely to speed to the top of the priority lists in unexpected institutions. Those of us working to maximize value at the top of the waste hierarchy welcome the president's thoughtful comment and look forward to finding better ways of helping consumers ‘regard effect' in practice.

Twenty years ago another American, Amory Lovins, coined the term ‘negawatt' to label the megawatt saved through energy conservation. In Australia and other countries this concept now underpins trading schemes between consumers and producers to make the negawatt the cheapest energy on the planet.

European studies tell us that the production of every tonne of product consumed in Britain uses twenty tonnes of global resources. Therefore, every tonne of product British people don't consume, saves twenty tonnes of global resources – or to put it another way: prevents the waste of twenty nega-tonnes of global resources.

A tonne of nega-stuff, or nega-resource, is the resource you don't need to use because of improved production processes, sustainable consumption practice and optimal waste management. The nega-resource concept connects our recycling, reuse and remanufacturing industries directly with forests left standing, rivers left unpolluted and species protected – all vital environmental capital.
We are currently seeing a renewed interest in waste prevention practice. Defra have commissioned Brook Lyndhurst, the Social Marketing Practice and Resource Recovery Forum to complete a comprehensive review of waste prevention literature to identify agreed facts and to shape a forward plan.

ESA's recent green paper calls for greater attention to Material Flows and Resource Productivity to identify priorities for waste prevention. WRAP are studying reuse carefully and their Love Food Hate Waste campaign seems to have reached further than Heineken. The Green Alliance are finalizing a review of European landfill bans to inform UK policy, and the honourable Alan Whitehead MP is preparing a Ten Minute Rule Bill on Renewable Content Obligations.

The London Borough of Bexley told a seminar recently they'd slashed the annual amount of waste produced by 25% between 2007 and 2008, and a couple of weeks ago the Waste Strategy Board discussed expected over-capacity in waste infrastructure in light of the continued decline in overall waste arising. All this against a background of falling global consumption – wherever you look, waste prevention is showing one of its many faces.

On the production and consumption end of things there is vast room for improvement, hence the importance of Alan Whitehead's forthcoming Bill. It's been common practice for instance, in the construction sector to over-order materials to maximise labour productivity; one reason for the fact that for every six houses built there's one in the skip as surplus materials are sent straight to landfill. Now that the construction industry is regrouping such practice can be reformed.

Back at the end of the pipe where so much of our sector operates, we are finding that careful quality-focused collection pays dividends in keeping disposal costs down. Long term analysis of South Somerset Waste Partnership has shown that the simple act of separating food waste from the waste stream leads to an annual decline of around 3% in per capita waste production. WRAP have now confirmed this with their recent food waste trials where the amount of food waste collected is, in some cases, 25% less than expected at the outset of a scheme. When helped, people hate throwing valuable things away.

Now we must get a bit more clever and look to the world of energy conservation for helpful models. With C&I waste prevention the latest holy grail, can we now try to agree a way to measure the value of nega-resource?
“Yes we can!”