Commercial and Industrial Waste and Selected Wasteflows

2. Background

2.1 Waste - efforts to date
2.2 Commercial and industrial waste - need for intensified efforts
2.3 The environmental space

2.1 Waste - efforts to date

Waste is everything we throw away, originating from industrial production or from household products we purchase daily. It includes everything from waste oil and building waste to electrical and electronic products, packaging, matrasses, food waste, and much, much more.

11 million tonnes of waste each year
In Denmark more than 11 million tonnes of waste are produced each year, of which about six million tonnes are commercial and industrial waste. 1.7 million tonnes are residues from coal-fired power stations, and 0.5 million tonne residues from waste incineration plants. It is important that this waste be disposed of in a way which is neither harmful to health nor the environment. Furthermore, disposal must be organised so that there are no unnecessary demands on natural resources, and so that the countryside is not marred by management, treatment, or final land-filling.

No matter whether the problem is hazardous waste, environmental contaminants, or merely that measures must ensure that waste is not dumped just anywhere, problems will become easier to solve the smaller amount of waste. Moreover, minimising waste and enhancing recycling contribute to saving resources.

For the above reasons, the generation and disposal of waste are major issues in the debate on environmental policy. Both nationally and internationally there are demands for minimising amounts of waste, increased recycling, better energy utilisation, and environmentally acceptable final disposal of what waste remains.

Extensive regulation of waste
Over the past 15-20 years there has been sweeping regulation of the waste area in the form of legislation and action plans. In the 70s incineration plants were erected after which the energy in waste was exploited and the amount of waste which was land-filled was reduced. The last five to ten years have been characterised by action plans, including especially many recycling initiatives.

Reduce the amount of waste, avoid landfilling and promote recycling
Over the last ten years the objectives of consecutive governments have been to minimise the amount of waste, to avoid landfilling, and to promote recycling. There have been attempts to solve the waste problem at source with the introduction of clean technology, and most recently environment control and environmental management, green accounting, and similar have been developed. This has meant that waste is not only considered as a burden to the environment, but also increasing as a resource.

In a large number of areas, efforts have produced good results. Focus has been on the large homogenous waste flows and treatment of hazardous waste.

In contrast, there has been less focus on waste flows which contain environmental contaminants which after incineration are concentrated in slags and in flue-gas cleaning products, or which are deposited.

Need for a special strategy for commercial and industrial waste
When, at the same time, it can be seen that the amount of both commercial and industrial waste and residues from incineration plants is increasing, we are today faced with a need for a special strategy for commercial and industrial waste.

In December 1996, a new Statutory Order was issued on the use of waste products in agriculture, particularly with respect to sludge. Further initiatives relating to sludge are not proposed in the current strategy.

As described in the introduction, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently working on three Position Papers which should be considered in relation to these efforts on commercial and industrial waste.

At the end of 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency presented the Position Papers ‘Chemicals - Status and Perspectives’ and ‘Intensified Product-oriented Environmental Action’. With respect to special effort for commercial and industrial waste, these Position Papers are important tools in preventive work where source-tracing and limitation are important elements.

Chemicals - Status and Perspectives
In association with ‘Chemicals - Status and Perspectives’ a draft was distributed listing undesirable substances in products. It was prepared based on knowledge of substances’ harmful effects on people and/or the environment. In selecting the substances, account was taken of the problems which can arise in production, use, and disposal of the products.

The list is an important tool in identifying substances which cause problems in waste and should therefore be used in the initial work in developing clean technologies, and in substituting environmental contaminants with less contaminating substances.

Intensified Product-oriented Environmental Action
In ‘Intensified Product-oriented Environmental Action’ there is a description of the parties and special efforts which should be established in order to contribute to development, production, and marketing of products with improved environmental qualities, so that the total social environmental burden of production, use, and disposal of products is reduced.

With the introduction of clean technology and the substitution of environmental contaminants with less contaminating substances, action is taken at source, i.e. during the production phase. However, these efforts will only show an effect in the long-term. For example, it takes a long time to establish clean technology and substitution in all phases, in addition the lifetime of the product is decisive in determining when it is to be found in the waste-flow. Efforts at source will therefore not be measurable in waste for several decades. Clean technology and substitution therefore do not solve the immediate environmental problems facing us today with respect to waste.

2.2. Commercial and industrial waste - need for intensified efforts

A more narrow interpretation of ‘commercial and industrial waste’ is waste from manufacturing enterprises, trade and offices, institutions, as well as building and construction waste. In addition to commercial and industrial waste itself, for environmental and resource considerations, it is also important to include residues from coal-fired power stations and waste-incineration plants.

Characteristic features of commercial and industrial waste
The following features are particularly characteristic in the development of commercial and industrial waste:

	Instead of primarily landfilling building and construction waste, approximately 85 per cent is recycled today.
	It has been possible to increase recycling of waste from industry 56 per cent, and for trade, offices and institutions to 38 per cent.
	Landfilling has not been reduced in either absolute or percentage terms. This was otherwise a condition for achieving goals set for the year 2000. The goal is that industry should landfill 10 per cent, and trade, offices and institutions should landfill no waste at all by the year 2000.
	The amount of commercial and industrial waste is increasing and will be even larger than expected by the year 2000.

The ban on landfilling waste suitable for incineration which took effect from 1 January 1997 is expected to result in a reduction in the amount of commercial and industrial waste landfilled by industry, trade, offices and institutions, but it is not sufficient to achieve the objectives for the year 2000.

Continued need for less waste and increased recycling
For this reason, there continues to be a need for efforts to reduce the amount of waste for landfilling, and similarly there is a need to continue efforts to increase recycling, including from trade and offices.

Residues from incineration plants contain a broad spectrum of chemical substances and raw material resources, part of which is not renewable. Amongst the resources which cannot be renewed are environmental contaminating heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel etc.

Concentrations of environmental contaminants in residues are at such a level that already now they are making the reuse of slag problematic, because a number of salts and metals can be washed out and thus constitute a health hazard and a risk of contaminating ground water. In accordance with the general principles of environmental protection, it is necessary to concentrate efforts on the environmental burden of waste, including residues and hazardous waste. At the same time, it is necessary to concentrate on efforts for the optimal exploitation of energy and raw material resources contained in waste. Furthermore, consideration should be given to possibilities for recovering raw material resources.

In short, there is a need for a commercial and industrial waste strategy which surveys:

	rationale for the increasing amount of waste
	possibilities for recycling waste
	possibilities for reducing the environmental harm caused by waste, including residues.
	possibilities for exploiting the energy and raw material resources contained in waste to the best extent possible.

2.3 The environmental space

Effective utilisation of resources in generation, consumption, and waste disposal is crucial for ensuring that there are sufficient resources for future generations. Effective utilisation of resources in waste, limits the demands on natural resources and thus offers greater consumption opportunities.

Allocation and environmental dimensions
In order to specify and administer demands for sustainable development, the term ‘the environmental space’ has been introduced. The environmental space is defined from a global view as the amount of natural resources which may be used annually without preventing future generations from having access to the same consumption of resources. At the same time, account should be taken of fair global distribution. The environmental space therefore has both an allocation and an environmental dimension.

When setting objectives and strategies which influence consumption and the utilisation of the resources available, it is important that a basis is created for development, which in the long term will fulfil the criteria which are fundamental to the environmental space. Objectives and strategies must, on the one hand, be realistic, and, on the other hand, sufficiently rapid to avoid collapse in terms of resources and ecology.

Focus on resources which are not renewable
This means that losses of non-renewable resources must be minimised. This could be through changing consumption, using other materials and products, and increasing recycling. Considerations should first be directed towards non-renewable resources which are most threatened, such as some metals and minerals, as well as fossil fuels.

For renewable resources, it is necessary to ensure a balance between growth and consumption.

Halving the extraction of resources
Fulfilment of the demand for sustainable development implies that globally there must be a halving of the extraction of resources. Nationally, there must be an adjustment of the consumption of raw materials so that Denmark does not use more than the share of total resources to which it is entitled, based on global allocation criteria. If these conditions are to be met, it will mean that Denmark’s consumption of virgin resources must be drastically reduced. The objective is therefore to reduce consumption of raw materials considerably over a number of years, and at the same time recycling must be increased significantly so that resources are kept in circulation.

Need for an active waste and recycling policy
The philosophy thus assumes a very active waste and recycling policy with the better utilisation of resources in production and consumption phases, and also in waste.