e-Digest Statistics about: Waste and Recycling
Definitions
- Centralised composting
- Large-scale schemes that handle kitchen and garden waste from households and which may also accept suitable waste from parks and gardens. Schemes may rely on aerobic methods (see composting) or use anaerobic digesters.
- Civic Amenity waste
- A sub-group of household waste, normally delivered by the public direct to sites provided by the local authority. Consists generally of bulky items such as beds, cookers and garden waste as well as recyclables.
- Controlled waste
- Household, industrial, commercial and clinical waste that requires a waste management licence for treatment, transfer and disposal. The main exempted categories comprise mine, quarry and farm wastes. Other legislation and procedures control radioactive and explosive wastes.
- Co-mingled materials
- Waste collected in a mixed form that is destined for recycling after further sorting.
- Commercial waste
- Waste arising from any premises which are used wholly or mainly for trade, business, sport recreation or entertainment, excluding municipal and industrial waste.
- Composting
- An aerobic, biological process in which organic wastes, such as garden and kitchen waste are converted into a stable granular material which can be applied to land to improve soil structure and enrich the nutrient content of the soil.
- Energy recovery from waste
- Includes a number of established and emerging technologies, though most energy recovery is through incineration technologies. Many wastes are combustible, with relatively high calorific values- this energy can be recovered through, for example, incineration with electricity generation.
- Home composting
- Compost can be made at home using a traditional compost heap, a purpose-designed container, or a wormery.
- Household Waste
- Includes waste from household collection rounds (waste within Schedule 1 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992), waste from services such as street sweeping, bulky waste collection, hazardous household waste collection, litter collections, household clinical waste collection and separate garden waste collection (waste within Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992), waste from civic amenity sites and wastes separately collected for recycling or composting through bring/drop off schemes, kerbside schemes and at civic amenity sites.
- Industrial waste
- Waste from any factory and from any premises occupied by an industry (excluding mines and quarries).
- Integrated co-collection
- Kerbside schemes where materials for recycling are collected by the same vehicle at the same time as the ordinary household waste collection.
- Kerbside collection
- Any regular collections of recyclables from premises, including collections from commercial or industrial premises as well as from households. Excludes services delivered on demand.
- Landfill sites
- Any areas of land in which waste is deposited. Landfill sites are often located in disused mines or quarries. In areas where they are limited or no ready made voids exist, the practice of landraising is sometimes carried out, where waste is deposited above ground and the landscape is contoured.
- Mechanised metal extraction
- Processes that allow the extraction of ferrous and non-ferrous metals from waste. This includes magnetic extraction and eddy current separation, but does not include hand sorting.
- Municipal Waste
- This includes household waste and any other wastes collected by a Waste Collection Authority, or its agents, such as municipal parks and gardens waste, beach cleansing waste, commercial or industrial waste and waste resulting from the clearance of fly-tipped materials.
- Recycling
- Involves the reprocessing of wastes, either into the same product or a different one. Many non-hazardous industrial wastes such as paper, glass, cardboard, plastics and scrap metals can be recycled. Special wastes such as solvents can also be recycled by specialist companies, or by in-house equipment.
- Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)
- A process whereby municipal waste is compressed into pellets which are then used as a solid fuel supplement in a power station. The pellets typically have a calorific value of about []
- Separate collection
- Kerbside schemes where materials for recycling are collected either by a different vehicle or at a different time to the ordinary household waste collection.
- Special waste
- Is defined by the Control of Pollution (Special Wastes) Regulations 1980 as any controlled waste that contains any of the substances listed in Schedule 1 to the regulations, or is dangerous to life, or has a combustion flashpoint of 21°C or less, or is a medical product as defined by the Medicines Act 1968.
- Treatment
- Involves the chemical or biological processing of certain types of waste for the purpose of rendering them harmless, reducing volumes before Land filling, or recycling certain wastes.
- Unitary Authority (UA)
- A local authority which has the responsibilities of both Waste Collection and Waste Disposal Authorities.
- Waste
- The wide ranging term encompassing most unwanted materials, defined by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Waste includes any scrap material, effluent or unwanted surplus substance or article that requires to be disposed of because it is broken, worn out, contaminated or otherwise spoiled. Explosives and radioactive wastes are excluded.
- Waste Collection Authority (WCA)
- A local authority charged with the collection of waste from each household in its area on a regular basis. Can also collect, if requested, commercial and industrial wastes from the private sector.
- Waste Disposal Authority (WDA)
- A local authority charged with providing disposal sites to which it directs the Waste Collection Authorities for the disposal of their controlled wastes, and for providing Civic Amenity facilities.
Further Information:
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Page last modified: 16 September 2003
Page published: 10 September 2003