Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town. This is the fourth of 5 case studies from across the globe

Arguably, Flanders has one of the best recycling and prevention programmes in Europe. The Flemish region is one 6 in Belgium, with a population of 6.2m spread across 308 municipalities. It claims one of the highest waste diversion rates in Europe, with around ¾ of all household waste reused, recycled, or composted.

While each region controls environment policies, waste management is devolved to the municipality. However almost all of them have grouped themselves into associations, and there are 27 inter-municipal waste management associations. There is not a single one size fits all solution. Most of the cities belong to local authority partnerships and run waste services in collaboration, but there are private or public companies, and a few areas operate independently, without an association. Collection systems also vary among associations with a combination of kerbside collections, bring bank schemes, on-street containers, and packaging take-back schemes.

Continue reading “How does Flanders achieve a 73% diversion rate?”

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town. This is the third of 5 case studies from across the globe

The Chilean community of La Pintana – one of the poorest in the country – has found that recycling their largest waste segment – vegetable waste and organic garden waste – is saving them money by making other waste streams easier to recycle and creating valuable composts. Although participation rates may not be that high, La Pintana’s waste recovery program seems to be showing signs of working.

What are the ingredients for success? It seems that a holistic approach, which looked at waste streams, rather than sources was in part helpful. The local authority took the view that it matters less who is creating waste, and there are efficiencies in handling segregated waste streams. Secondly, waste miles were too high and the costs of disposal needed to be reduced. A more localised solution turned out to be more cost effective. Thirdly, a local education campaign was necessary, but seems to need regular reinforcement and additional publicity interventions. Fourth, there are a variety of incentives to make it worthwhile for people to participate.

Continue reading “Vegetable Waste La Pintana, Chile”

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town. This is the second of 5 case studies from across the globe

San Francisco is a global leader in waste management. Their Zero Waste practices have been adopted in cities across the world. The city is cosmopolitan with a diverse population with a high percentage of residents that have English as a second language. Half live in small, multiple occupancy housing and a 1/3 or so are home owners. Conditions such as these might hamper recycling efforts in some cities, but not San Francisco it seems, which has a long and fascinating waste journey. Following the earthquake in 1906, waste pickers created loose federations to compete for business. Two companies emerged in the 1920’s, the Scavengers Protective Association and the Sunset Scavenger Company. By 1932 the companies were regulated and awarded exclusive licences only to merge years later to form Recology, now the sole waste collector. Continue reading “San Francisco can do it – so can we?”

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town through the first of 5 case studies from across the globe

The Indian city of Mumbai, population 12.5m, is divided into 24 wards, each with individual budgets and waste management responsibility. The city government operates a communal waste collection system, effectively a ‘waste bring’ system for 78% of households, and house to house collections for just 22%. Historically, most waste has ended up in one of the three landfill sites. The sites are however were at a critical point. The volume of waste would have been reduced by ‘waste pickers’ who removed recoverable materials either for reuse or recycling. However with routine  soil covering now in operation,  and private operators banning recyclers, costs of disposal were on the up.

Continue reading “Case Study: Mumbai co-operatives help decentralise recycling”