I am going to research waste pollution. I have chosen to research waste pollution because it is a topic of general interest which is effecting the environment and health of many people.
Task 1: Introduction
I am going to research waste pollution. I have chosen to research waste pollution because it is a topic of general interest which is effecting the environment and health of many people.
I am going to research this topic area by first using primary sources, writing letters and trying to interview waste disposal, incineration and landfill companies and also local governments and councils to get their views and what they are doing to stop waste pollution. I will also be interviewing and giving questionnaires to the local public. I am also going to use secondary sources such as the internet, news papers reports, books and leaflets to find out if there has been any previous research on waste, and also to get information to back my research.
The different types of waste pollution in the UK are:
* Radioactive waste
* Household waste
The waste is either taken to landfills or incinerators where they are disposed.
Incineration with energy recovery makes use of waste as a resource. Incineration disposes of waste by combustion with or without energy recovery. 'co-incineration' takes place in some industrial processes that produce energy or materials.
Of the 7,000 incinerators in England and Wales:
* 11 burn municipal waste
* Some 60 burn waste including chemicals, clinical waste and savage sludge
* Over 10 are cement kilns or power stations co-incinerating waste
* Over 3,000 burn wood
* About 1,700 burn oil
* Some 3,000 are small farm incinerators.
Municipal waste incineration is increasing and the EU landfill directive requires much more to be diverted from landfill over the next 20 years. Even if the governments waste targets are met outlets such as incineration will increase. The amount of waste incinerated or recovered by other means may need to double by 2003 and to reach 10 million tonnes by 2010.
Landfill has been a favoured option for waste disposal in the past, but it is a waste of resources. Most of the waste we produce in England and Wales is put in about 1,500 landfill site. Each site is licensed to receive a certain type of waste (shown below in the chart)
The current sites are much larger that those in the past. The area of land taken for landfill sites is about 29,000 hectares. About 100 million tons of waste a year is landfilled, in the past it was an easy route for waste disposal because it was cheap and space was often available in old quarries. Space approved for landfills is set to run out in the next five to ten years.
About two-thirds of landfilled waste is biodegradable organic matter from households, businesses and industry. Other waste includes inert materials for example from construction and demolition.
Waste pollution relates to British society as it is effecting the environment and health of British people and is an issue which many people fail to recognise.
Waste pollution is a major problem in British society and can even be found in health care waste, and these can become risks to the population at large if pathways exist between them. Possible pathways include:
* Direct contact
* Contact through vectors
* Airborne transmissions
* The pollution of water sources or local environment.
The chart above shows how much recycling has been improved over the last ten years. And by looking at the chart you can see that little change has been made to increase the amount of waste that is recycled.
I am going to relate my research to the Greenwich borough, and I am going to do this by seeing how many landfill sites or incineration companies there are and are these affecting the people that live near by. Also giving questionnaires to people that live in the borough to see how much they recycle, if they are aware that they live near incinerators and landfills and what they could do to stop incineration and landfills. I will also find out if there are any recycling companies, are the people aware f these and if they are how often do they use them.
The main aim of my research is to;
* Research landfills and incinerators to find out why and how they are affecting the environment and peoples health.
* Research the illnesses caused by pollution.
* Find out what can be done to stop waste pollution and how governments, local councils and the pressure groups are helping to cut down on waste pollution.
* To get a clear under standing of how waste affects us as a whole.
The diagram below shows the people who can stop waste pollution.
Local councils are responding to waste pollution by putting more recycling bins in areas were they have none and making then more accessible for the public. Local councils are also holding meetings or debates for the public to have their say. But after this they do not seem to be doing much to stop incineration or landfills which are causing the main problems.
The government are responding by providing money for recycling but they do not seem to be doing very much to stop incineration or landfills, making aware the health problems that these cause to the public. And they are doing very little to promote recycling and also not making providing recycling bins for all areas which need them.
Pressure groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the earth are responding to waste pollution by campaigning against incineration, telling people about the effects of using incineration, telling governments and councils their views and also trying to close down landfill and incineration companies.
Greenpeace were able to shut down South East London flagship incinerator for four days and sloped pollution spreading over the area.
South East London
incinerator
Greenpeace were also able to shut down Sheffield incinerator for three days and successfully protect the people and the city from polluting gasses.
Sheffield incinerator
They are also using their web sites to inform people if they live near an incinerator and also how to recycle effectively.
The chart above shows what types of materials are recycled.
Only 11% of rubbish in the UK is recycled, but Switzerland, Holland and Germany half there waste so why can't the UK. Pressure groups like friends of the earth and Greenpeace are researching information like this to make people aware of the UK waste problems.
Health and social care workers would be involved in waste pollution because it could be ...
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Sheffield incinerator
They are also using their web sites to inform people if they live near an incinerator and also how to recycle effectively.
The chart above shows what types of materials are recycled.
Only 11% of rubbish in the UK is recycled, but Switzerland, Holland and Germany half there waste so why can't the UK. Pressure groups like friends of the earth and Greenpeace are researching information like this to make people aware of the UK waste problems.
Health and social care workers would be involved in waste pollution because it could be harming people's health. So workers like environmental health officers can close down incinerators or landfill sites if they think they are putting lives at risk. There is also the environment agency which said that 'nine out of ten people in England and Wales would recycle more if recycling was made easier.' By providing information like this local councils and governments know what they need to do to improve recycling services.
This picture shows how people can help by campaigning against incinerators.
From looking at this picture you can see
that waste pollution is not just in the UK.
many developing countries would suffer more
as the landfill sites would be more exposed
and many poorer families would depend on
these landfills to survive or make a living,
and by governments not doing any thing
about it diseases are spreading. But
developed countries are able to afford
recycling so why has countries like the UK
still got waste problems?
Task 2: How waste pollution affects health
Health risks in incineration like dioxins are long-lived organic substances which can bioaccumulate in the food chain and may cause cancer and other illnesses. However the committee on carcinogenicitly found that the risk of cancer from living near a multiple waste incinerator is exceedingly low. Tighter emissions limits have greatly reduced any potential risks and an incinerator operating to new standards contributes less than 1% to the average person's dioxin intake from 'background' levels in the UK.
The department of health is developing guidelines for assessing the affects of incineration and consulting local people. The affect of incineration is assessed on a case-by-case bias.
The local authorities regulate many smaller incinerations as 'Part B' process under the environmental protection act 1990. The agency regulates about 100 of the more complex incinerators under 'Part A' of the integrated pollution control.
There are no large risks to human health related to landfill sites in general. A review of 46 human studies show that increased risks of certain effects (low birth weights, birth defects and certain types of cancers) have been reported near a few individual landfill sites. There is a possibility that other factors explain some of these findings but they may represent real risks in certain cases.
Symptoms such as fatigue, sleepiness and headaches have also been reported. Although these symptoms cannot be assumed to be an effect of toxic chemical action, they may indicate the impact that sites can have on stress and anxiety. It is very difficult to confirm any links between health and landfill sites and the government has funded further research.
The table below shows pathway hazards of health care waste:
Health care waste is hazardous; it may include items such as:
* Infectious waste which contains pathogens in sufficient quantity such that exposure could result in disease;
* 'Sharp' waste such as needles, infusion sets the scalpels;
* Pathological waste which may contain human tissues, fluids and viral cultures;
* Pharmaceutical waste; and
* Other wastes that oppose hazards including chemicals, radioactive material, pressurized gas containers.
The groups most at risk
The impacts of poor health care waste management differs from one population group to other Specific groups who come directly into contact with health care waste include;
* Waste pickers,
* Waste recyclers drug addicts (who scavenge for used needles and medicines)
* Hospital sweepers and other low down hospital staff.
They can be affected in two ways; through direct contact with waste everyday of there working lives as a result of poor healthcare
The table below shows the risks to the local community:
The table shows that family, such as those who depend on waste picking, may live in squatter settlement or even within a waste dump, are usually poorly educated and their opinions are often neglected. By comparison, higher income groups have better quality of like, are more educated and have more influence.
I decided to carry out my own research on waste pollution. I did this by giving out ten questionnaires to male and females who live in the Lewisham borough where there is an incineration company to find out if they had had any related symptoms that are caused by incinerators.
Results to Questionnaires
. How many live near a landfill or incinerator.
2. All participants said that landfills and incinerators are affecting their health.
3. Six participants said they are aware of the affects of waste pollution and four said that they are not.
4. Four participants said they do not know the illnesses caused by waste pollution. But six people said heart problems, one said lung and cancer problems and one person said breathing defects.
5. Six people said that they had not had any of the illnesses and four people said they had.
6. Result to people who said yes to have an illness.
Task 3: health and care workers
Health and care workers might become involved in waste pollution as it can effect the environment (climate and waters) and also be putting people's health at risk.
The health and care workers most likely to be involved are; environmental health officers, health and safety officers, bin men doctors and nurses
The role of the environmental agency is to create a better environment and waste minimisation is central to the achievement of this goal. They are currently involved over 100 projects throughout England and Wales. The environment agency is responsible for waste regulations and pollution control. As part of these achievements, agency staffs promote and provide advice on good practice.
The agency's aim is to 'demonstrate':
* The effective use of resources - doing more with less
* Achievable reductions in the impact of wastage, helping profits and the environment.
* Clean and efficient solutions to the challenge of waste minimisation innovation in design technology.
They also aim to demonstrate to waste producers how best to reduce, reuse or recover waste.
Health and safety officer's role in dealing with the environmental problem is to investigate possible risks and accident situations, and look at the work place as a whole. They can issue safety practices for health care personnel and waste workers.
Fig. 12.1 Recommended protective clothing for health-care waste transportation in
small hospitals.
They also give advice for safe management on personal hygiene, immunization, management practices, special precautions for cleaning up spillages of potentially hazardous substances and response to injury and exposure.
Bin men and waste collectors role in dealing with the environmental problem is to collect a certain amount of waste from each household and make sure the waste is disposed of in the correct way. They do this by sorting the waste then taking it to landfills or incinerators depending on the type of waste.
Doctors and nurses role in dealing with the environmental problem is to treat people with the related illness caused by land fills and incineration. They identify relevant symptoms by the person having irritated skin, breathing problems, having found these illnesses they can identify that the illness is caused by the environmental factor by asking if they live near a landfill or incinerator and knowing if any other patients have been diagnosed with the same illness and live near an incinerator or landfill.
Task E4: Government
The government in Britain is tackling waste pollution by setting up the greater London authority act 1999 and the draft municipal waste management strategy.
The greater London authority act 1999 requires the mayor to prepare a municipal waste management strategy. It must contain the mayor's proposals and policies for the recovery treatment and disposal of municipal waste, and contain other proposals and policies relating to municipal waste as he considers appropriate. The Mayor must have regard to the principal purposes of the greater London authority, the effect the proposed strategy will have on the health of people of London, and the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom. The mayor has certain powers of direction when waste authorities in London tender waste contracts. These powers are to enable the waste strategy.
The draft municipal waste management strategy was presented by the mayor (Ken Livingstone). The main aim of the draft waste strategy is that London's municipal waste no longer compromises a wider vision for London as a sustainable city. To achieve this wasteful lifestyle habits must change so that only the absolute minimum amounts of waste are produced by us all, and the environment is no longer under pressure from waste. Also to ensure that municipal waste is managed in a way that minimises the advertise impact on the local and global environment, and on Londoner's communities, economy and health.
Although the greater London authority act 1999 requites the mayor to prepare a municipal waste management strategy, covering waste collected by local authorities, municipal waste only accounts for around a quarter of London's total waste. The urgent need to provide guidance to London's waste collection and waste disposal authorities means that the present strategy is limited to municipal waste. However the mayor recognises the need for a wider strategy and the preparation of a London waste strategy will follow the municipal waste management strategy.
The government waste strategy provides a welcoming boost to waste minimisation and recycling but does little to restrain the building of massive incinerators across the country. Key tests for the strategy were:
* It must promise a doorstep recycling service for every household - it failed to do this but strongly supported doorstep recycling as the way forward.
* It must provide £200 million on local authority recycling - Gordon Brown announced £100 million a year from reform the landfill tax credit scheme for public spending on 'sustainable waste management'. This starts from 2003-04. In addition he said the landfill tax will be increased to £3 per year in 2005/6.
* It must set statutory recycling targets of 50 per cent recycling by 2010/2015 with a higher target from 2020 - it did not do this but suggestions that the strategy will lead to 45 per cent recycling by 2015 (although it provides no certainty to this).
* It must put a break on building of massive incinerators and instead favour the building of small-scale recycling plants to make recyclables out of residential waste and treat the rest - one of the reviews biggest failings - despite widespread opposition to large scale incineration across the country, and new research showing that there are much better ways than incineration to treat residential waste. Useful measures would have included removing the £50 million worth of subsides given to incineration or the introduction of an incineration tax.
Local Councils
Council environmental services, such as waste recycling, street cleaning have improved in the past five years. Councils that standout for having made gains in most of all the services assessed include Breckland in Norfolk, Cornwall, Croydon in south London, Darlington, Devon, and Newham in east London. Possible the most dramatic improvement has been in the recycling of household waste, which has doubled since the mid-1990s. But the survey shows considerable variation as Stockport manages to recycle more than 30 times as much as its neighbour Manchester, and similarly in Northamptonshire, Daventry recycles 25 times the proportion achieved by Corby.
The borough of southwalk offers a kerbside scheme for the collection of news papers and magazines, a compactor vehicle collects the materials from the kerbside from 7,000 households, from the 45-ltr box provided to the residents. There are currently over 65 recycling bring sites. The borough also supplied compost bins to residents at a subsidised price from April 1995 to September 2002.
The council also supports the recycling activities of a number of local voluntary organisations and community groups, such as the Aylesbury Recycling Group which make ad hoc collections upon resident's requests.
The borough collects refuse from 114,659 properties with a minimum of a weekly collection; the collection is carried out by Southwalk's DSO, southwalk direct. The waste collected is landfilled and incinerated. The paper collected in the borough is sent for reprocessing into 'renaissance'.
The London borough of Greenwich provided 54,000 households with a fortnightly green box compared to southwalk which only provides to 7,000 households. The paper is also collected at a kerbside in a box left by residents. Greenwich also has a network of 80 bring sites located across the borough, and also offers a recycling centre for residents.
Refuse in the borough of Greenwich is collected from 92,000 households on a weekly basis. Just over 103,000 tonnes of this sent for incineration with energy recovery at the SELCHP plant in Lewisham, with over 6,300 tonnes of metal recovered after incineration for recycling. Greenwich sent just over 30,000 tonnes of waste to landfill at Rainham, South Ockendon and Pitsea landfill sites in Essex.
Unlike Southwalk and Greenwich Bexley council's waste recycling team offer two types of disposal services for local business; weekly rubbish collections; an, fortnightly waste paper collections.
Pressure Groups
Pressure groups are organisations of people who oppose or are against things like incineration and landfills; they use campaigning as a way of telling the government and other official bodies that what there doing is wrong and can be affecting people's health.
Examples of pressure groups who are against incineration and landfills are; friends of the earth and green peace.
Green peace and friends of the earth say they are against incineration and landfills because;
Incineration the combustion of waste at high temperatures:
* Encourages more waste
Incineration needs a minimum of rubbish to operate. To meet demand local authorities are abounding recycling and waste reduction plants
* Uses up energy
Even incinerators that generate electricity are not an energy saving option. Recycling saves far more energy because it means making less new things from raw materials.
* Causes pollution
Smoke, gases and ash from incinerators can contain harmful dioxins which are a cause of cancer.
Landfill dumping rubbish in the ground or in waste mountains:
* Release toxins
Rotting rubbish emits explosive gases and polluting liquids. Methane emissions contribute to climate change.
To stop landfills and incineration pressure groups say the government should:
* Increase taxes on landfill and a tax on incineration as an incentive to reduce waste and recycle.
* Increase money for local authorities to provide doorstep recycling for every household and set tough recycling target's.
* More resources for the environmental agency to improve regulations of landfills and incinerators, and make them more community focused rather than industry friendly.
* Making manufactures responsible for recycling products at the en of there lives and finically responsible for disposal costs. Introduce a tax on packaging.
* Financial incentives to encourage the use of recycled material.
Task E5
Laws and regulations tend to be used to control pollution by setting emission standards, to restrict production of pollutants. It does have limitations however, as regulations typically do not work well for defuse pollution or for small sites where regulations can pose a disproportionate administrative burden.
Key pieces of current UK legislation include; Control of pollution act 1997, Environment act 1990 and the Environmental protection act 1995.
Task 7
The environmental health officers are organisations set up by the government. They are involved in waste pollution as waste is an environmental issue and it is the environmental health officer's job to make sure waste pollution such as incineration and landfills are not damaging the environment and putting the public's health at risk. To do this they are responsible for inspecting landfill and incineration sites, closing them down if they are a health risk and also offer advice on safe management.
The environmental health officers work for the government and they carry out inspections on the basis of guidance issued by the secretary of state. The inspection are carried out to make sure that waste is recovered or disposed of in ways that do not harm the environment or cause damage to health. They can also work with health and safety officers when dealing with issue of safe management procedures to handling or transporting waste.
Bin men collect household waste and transport this to various landfill of incineration companies to be exposed of, they are involved in waste pollution as they are responsible for collecting and transporting the waste to be destroyed.
They work for local councils and usually work in a specific borough where they collect the waste.
Task 8
The government are tackling the waste problem by launching a municipal waste management strategy which puts recycling at the heart of managing the capital's waste. The strategy incorporates a 'presumption against incineration' as the mayor wants to concentrate on developing recycling and waste minimisation. The strategy is aiming to exceed the government's targets, which require authorities to effectively double their recycling by 2004 and treble in 2005/6.
Friends of the earth say the government policy is risking our health and the environment instead of helping solve the waste crises. Also the current practise of landfilling mixed municipal waste is highly polluting, as well as unpopular and ultimately unsustainable. To stop waste pollution the pressure group set targets for the government, take action against incineration and also campaign against landfills which are affecting the environment.
Their targets for the government are shown below, and are also compared with hoe well the government mat the targets:
* It must promise a doorstep recycling service for every household - it failed to do this but strongly supported doorstep recycling as the way forward.
* It must provide £200 million on local authority recycling - Gordon Brown announced £100 million a year from reform the landfill tax credit scheme for public spending on 'sustainable waste management'. This starts from 2003-04. In addition he said the landfill tax will be increased to £3 per year in 2005/6.
* It must set statutory recycling targets of 50 per cent recycling by 2010/2015 with a higher target from 2020 - it did not do this but suggestions that the strategy will lead to 45 per cent recycling by 2015 (although it provides no certainty to this).
* It must put a break on building of massive incinerators and instead favour the building of small-scale recycling plants to make recyclables out of residential waste and treat the rest - one of the reviews biggest failings - despite widespread opposition to large scale incineration across the country, and new research showing that there are much better ways than incineration to treat residential waste. Useful measures would have included removing the £50 million worth of subsides given to incineration or the introduction of an incineration tax.
Mike Childs, senator waste campaigner at friends of the earth, said: 'Communities across the country will be up in arms about the government's failure to tackle incineration. They will lay the blame firmly at the door of Gordon Brown who continues to lavish the incineration industry with undeserved subsidies.'
Task 9: Analysis
From carrying out my own research you can see that from looking at the results of the primary data all the participants that took part said that they or someone in their family had been affected by the illnesses that can be caused by incineration, also some of the participants were unaware that they lived near an incineration company and did not know the health risks related to incineration. Many participants said that they would consider moving or would not have moved to the borough if they were aware of the health risks or incineration before they moved.
From looking at the primary data collected in task two you can see that incineration has more health risks there are not as many as there are landfill sites, and more was is landfilled every year than waste incinerated. Landfills also have health risks but they are usually built in rural areas so there is less chance of being affected by them.
When carrying out the primary research I used a quantitive methodology which would have made my research more reliable as they were yes or no answers but if I used a qualitive methodology the research would have been harder to analyse and also when carrying out the research I could have influenced participants when answering the questions and therefore the research could have been biased. To make the research more accurate I could have got more participants to take part in the research so I could have had more accurate results, the results could have also been improved by making the questionnaire more accurate by adding more questions on the health risks that be caused by incineration and going into more detail with some of the questions to justify the results. Also having more time to spend with the participants when filling in the questionnaires, as I was limited to a certain amount of time with each participants, which could have made them rushed and therefore less reliable. When carrying out the research the difficulties I came across were finding participants to take part in the research and to answer all questions fully and honestly.
Task 10: Government & Councils
The councils activities do not really seem to be working, they are not really doing any thing to stop using landfill and incinerators except offering more recycling schemes but they have made no plans to cut down on using incineration and from looking at waste statistics you can seen that the same amount of waste is still being incinerated as before the doorstep recycling started so this has made no affect on cutting down on the was problem. The council could do more by setting up more recycling centres and by making it easier to recycle they could then cut down on the amount of waste incinerated.
Government statistics show that legislations are working but these legislations do not go far enough as new incinerators and landfills are still being built, and current legislations do not stop incineration in anyway. The government could cut down on how much waste is incinerated by setting targets to do this. Also by doing more this like the greater London authority cat could also stop waste pollution. The government set waste targets but often these are not met, so it is hard to trusting the government on issues such as reducing incineration, when targets are not met and more incinerators being built.