What is MSW and what are the UK’s Plans to Reduce the Amount that ends up in Landfills

Definition

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is waste collected by or on behalf of a local authority.

Background

MSW comprises mostly household waste and it may include some commercial and industrial wastes.

In the United Kingdom, the quantity of MSW is currently has been increasing year on year for as long as anyone can remember, presenting a growing problem for local authorities particularly as new legislation, which limits indirectly the amount of mixed MSW that can be sent to landfill, is coming into effect.

“Throwing it away”, is only the start of an ever more complex waste management  system currently being devised and implemented, in the UK, and throughout Europe.

Since the introduction of the EU Landfill Directive during the 1990s, one of the most deeply established of the principles for European and UK waste management has been the concept of a hierarchy of waste management options. The idea is that we must all do our best to dispose of all of our waste (including MSW) according to the hierarchy, choosing the method closest to the top of the list.

Let’s explain this:

1. The most desirable option is not to produce the waste in the first place (waste prevention) and the least desirable option is to dispose of the waste with no recovery of either materials and/or energy.
2. Between these two extremes there are a wide variety of waste treatment options that may be used as part of a waste management strategy to recover materials, for example:-
• reuse of furniture by sale or auction,
• glass by recycling, or organic waste by composting),
• or generate energy from the wastes (for example through, incineration, or digesting biodegradable wastes to produce usable gases).

The Future

At present (2005) more than 75% of all MSW generated in England is disposed of in landfills.  However, European and UK legislation has been put in place to limit the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) sent for disposal in landfill.  The diversion of this material is currently a very large challenge facing all those involved in the management of Municipal Solid Waste in the UK.

The amount of Municipal Solid Waste sent for disposal to alternatives to landfill will have to be massively increased to limit the residual amount left for landfilling. There are a wide variety of alternative waste management options and strategies which are available for dealing with many of these wastes.

Some are well proven, and others are completely new, and comprise risky investments for those who seek to innovate and improve these technologies.

There is also very little time to try out these very promising new technologies, and some are very exciting indeed.

Some are such like the new energy company, LOSONOCO which has plans to use all types of organic MSW, to produce fuel ethanol. This fuel ethanol would be converted to petrol or diesel, by their process. It has been said that if all the UK’s organic waste was diverted to their plants and processed in this way something like the whole UK demand for car diesel could be provided without using a single tonne of additional fossil-fuel. Technologies like this could therefore completely revolutionise our dependency on oil, reducing our needs substantially, and should be encouraged for many reasons, including their benefits in reducing climate change.

Find Out More

Many of these technologies are included in a range of new alternatives currently being assessed and investigated through the New Technologies work stream of UK the Government Department Defra.

Further details about the new technologies featured in this report are available from Defra’s Waste Technology Data Centre: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/wtd. We also suggest a visit to our directory web site www.waste-technologies.co.uk.

The aim of Defra’s Waste Technology Data Centre is to provide impartial information about the range of technologies referred to as Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) and Mechanical Heat Treatment (MHT).  These technologies are pre-treatment technologies which contribute to the diversion of MSW from landfill when operated as part of a wider integrated approach involving additional treatment stages.