View from the compost heap

 Charlie Trousdell is the managing director of TJ Composting. He will become chairman of the Association for Organics Recycling on January 27.

Recently there has been a flurry of newspaper column inches lamenting the “pointless” system of recycling. Certain publications, it seems – particularly those of the non-broadsheet persuasion – are opposed to the whole idea behind recycling. A recent Daily Mail headline is reflective: “For years we've been bullied into recycling. But the credit crunch has made this pointless – and guess who's paying the price?”

This worrying attitude needs to be addressed. In light of this, it is perhaps an opportune time to think carefully about how resources are managed and how (to use the old fashioned term) rubbish is moved about. Fundamentally, it is crucial to examine total energy costs of recycling versus making new products. This must include the whole system from collections through to reprocessing facilities.

Obviously, it would be good for everyone if less waste were produced in the first place. Those who are old enough to have gone through the Second World War certainly did not throw much away (nor of course did society produce so much ‘tat') and in these tough economic times people will perhaps be more careful about what they discard and indeed buy.

The reality of our present society is that we all throw away huge amounts of rubbish, something like a tonne a year, per household. Considering this fact (and the 21st century dilemma of where to put it all) we all need to take responsibility for what happens to our waste.

I don't suppose there are many people who would seriously suggest we should go back to shoving it all in a hole in the ground, but the questions of what to do with it all remain. Equally, the questions asked about recycling are, on the whole, legitimate.

Perhaps though, it is time we started asking slightly different questions. For example, does it really make sense to ship, paper, plastic etc half way around the world to be recycled in China? Up until recently it certainly was economic and given the vast amount of goods we imported, the economics worked by using all those empty shipping containers.

However in terms of energy costs almost certainly it would be more efficient to utilise the excess paper and plastic that cannot be, or is not needed for recycling, in an efficient energy recovery system here in the UK provided the heat was beneficially used.

We need to start looking at fundamental energy principles and measuring what we do in basic units, eg Mega Joules per Kg, so the cost in energy terms of moving waste across the world is say, x MJ/Kg and y MJ/Kg to convert paper waste to new paper and z MJ/Kg to burn in a recovery system.

Only then will we start to get a true picture of how best to recycle and recover our resources. I appreciate this is not easy but this is something some of our Universities could really get involved with and examine these embodied energy principles.

Organics, which make up a significant percentage of household waste, (especially so if garden waste is included) are perhaps slightly easier to examine. Green waste converted to good compost helps farmers reduce their chemical and therefore primary energy use, plus is adding carbon to the soil.

Generally, compost facilities are close to the source of material and the resultant product is normally used close to the production site, thereby minimising transport miles.

Food waste is, of course, a very different prospect; if it is collected on its own it will be suitable for an Anaerobic Digester, but, if it's mixed with green, it is far more difficult in an AD system. In Vessel Composting is now established in the UK and on the whole works well. However, no one has really examined how best to manage food waste on the basis of collecting, processing and turning it into a product.

Probably the best thing to do with food waste is to turn it into animal feed, (done correctly it is safe) common in many countries and something we did before the recent Foot and Mouth incidents.
It should be obvious that, in the future, despite the current relatively low oil price, the cost of primary energy is going to rise and, together with climate change concerns, society must be much more energy efficient.

This encompasses both how we collect ‘waste/resources' and how we turn these back into products or energy. We probably all need to do a bit more Physics homework and get to grips with energy principles!