redactive Facilitate Focus Tackling Hidden Waste User Guide
- June 13, 2024
- redactive
Table of Contents
Facilitate Focus Tackling Hidden Waste
Product Information
The product is a guide presented by Facilitate, focusing on
tackling hidden waste and its importance to Scope 3 emissions
reporting. It is part of the Facilitate Focus series of product and
service market analyses.
Specifications
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Product Type: Guide
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Focus: Tackling hidden waste and Scope 3 emissions
reporting -
Presented by: Facilitate
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Series: Facilitate Focus
Product Usage Instructions
Understanding Hidden Waste
Hidden waste refers to recyclable materials that are not
properly recycled but end up in landfills or incineration.
Understanding the impact of hidden waste is crucial for
environmental sustainability.
Auditing Waste Management
It is essential to conduct audits of waste handlers to ensure
proper management of waste. By auditing waste processes,
organizations can identify opportunities to save money and improve
environmental performance.
Transition to Circular Economy
Transitioning from a linear economy to a circular one is vital
for sustainable resource management. Embracing circular economy
principles helps in achieving Net Zero goals and reducing
environmental impact.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Why is managing hidden waste important?
A: Managing hidden waste is crucial for reducing environmental
impact, improving resource efficiency, and achieving sustainability
goals. Proper waste management contributes to lower emissions and a
healthier environment.
Q: How can organizations tackle hidden waste effectively?
A: Organizations can tackle hidden waste by conducting waste
audits, implementing recycling programs, promoting sustainability
practices, and collaborating with waste management companies to
ensure proper disposal and recycling of materials.
FOCUS
Tackling hidden waste and its importance to Scope 3 emissions reporting
This guide is part of the Facilitate Focus series of product and service
market analyses.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
TACKLING HIDDEN WASTE
INTRODUCTION
Ahead of new Scope 3 emissions reporting rules, FMs need to wake up to the
realities of what happens to their waste. It’s time to start asking waste
management companies some difficult questions.
This report is presented by Facilitate, the magazine of the Institute of
Workplace and Facilities Management, in association with Advetec.
08 11
CONTENTS
03 What happens to hidden waste
Key statistics from our recent survey
06 Solid Recovered Fuel
Breaking down waste with biotechnology
08 Overcoming obstacles
The need for a shift in thinking
11 Case study: Max Recycle
Interview with MD Scott Hawthorne
14 How XO technology works
Six steps to Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)
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What happens to hidden waste?
For many years, the focus for businesses and consumers around waste management has been on recycling, separating out paper, cardboard, metal and plastics so they can be collected and recycled for future use. Yet according to government figures, only around 45 per cent of waste from households is recycled, and the figure is likely to be even lower for businesses, where people have less time and take less care to separate out materials.
This means more than half of all recyclable waste is not, in fact, recycled,
and instead much of this heads off to landfill or for incineration. In all,
around
14 million
tonnes of waste was sent to landfill in 2021,
of which
6.8 million
was biodegradable.
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TACKLING HIDDEN WASTE
This is one of the reasons behind the government’s push to halve the amount of
residual waste that goes to landfill or incineration by 2042. It’s also an
area that’s set to gain significantly more traction as organisations attempt
to get their Scope 3 emissions under control as part of the wider push towards
net-zero aims; something that will encompass the disposal of items and
products that may not have been manufactured or produced by the business
itself.
This “hidden waste” was the focus of a survey by Facilitate magazine, which
aimed to provide further insight into just what happens to mixed residual
waste; those items that have not been separated from other products even if
they are recyclable and that have in effect been contaminated as a result.
This hints at a wider issue facing those working in FM teams; that of a
disconnect between the waste that is generated on their sites and how it is
handled. While 77 per cent of those surveyed say they’re keen to proactively
manage their waste and are open to ideas to save money and improve
environmental performance, 66 per cent admit they have never audited their
waste handler.
Yet we are now in a world in which switching from the traditional linear
economy to a more circular one is essential, not optional, as we move towards
a regenerative economic system in which resources are reused in pursuit of the
Net Zero agenda. And as pressure from all sides of the supply chain grows, the
introduction of a transparent, routinely audited process is of growing
importance.
The study found…
More than
half
(52%) say this is
incinerated
24%
goes to landfill
Around
a quarter
(24% of those questioned) admit they do not know what happens to this waste.
Energy misconceptions
The Facilitate survey also revealed some misconceptions around the options
available to treat mixed residual waste, beyond landfill and recycling. Some
67 per cent feel energy from waste typically through incineration is the
best option here but this often leads to waste heading to landfill anyway if
facilities aren’t available. It’s also rare for the heat derived from this to
go towards electricity.
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Capped landfill site in the UK
“There’s a lot of confusion here and the waste sector does not make it clear what is happening,” says Dr Stephen Wise, chief strategic development officer at environmental biotechnology firm Advetec. “Typically in this country, most of the energy-from-waste facilities do not use the heat that’s generated.
There are some locations that connect facilities to the electricity or heating grid, he adds, but these are few and far between. This confusion is borne out by the survey results; 55 per cent believe energy from waste creates renewable energy and 64 per cent assume it is used to generate electricity. At best, these are only partly or occasionally true.
Only about 40-45 per cent is used to generate electricity, and the rest is effectively wasted.
Concerningly, almost half (48 per cent) of FMs believe energy from waste is the only other major option to landfill or recycling; something that ignores the huge potential of both anaerobic where there is separation of organic waste at source and aerobic digestion, which can be used to treat mixed residual waste.
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TACKLING HIDDEN WASTE
Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)
Crucially, new technology now allows aerobic digestion to be performed on- site, which means fewer journeys taking waste to be processed, reducing carbon emissions associated with handling waste. According to Facilitate’s survey,
14%
of organisations are currently considering treating waste on-site
and a further 40 per cent are open to the idea in theory. More than half (51
per cent) admit to being unaware that this can be a lower-cost option, and
only 23 per cent of FMs currently factor in road-related carbon emissions
stemming from waste collections when calculating their organisation’s carbon
footprint.
Such technology gives organisations the ability to transform mixed residual
waste into a usable product. Advetec’s XO systems, for instance, will break
down waste by 50 per cent in 48-72 hours, transforming it into Solid Recovered
Fuel (SRF). The system is already in use at shopping centres and theme parks
and can cope with up to 80 tonnes of waste a day, depending on the system set
up and operational scale and needs.
The clever part is the biotechnology,
says Wise. “We mix that with the residual waste that’s inside the box. That
biotech then helps break down that organic matter much more rapidly, generates
heat naturally and drives off moisture. What we’re left with is FLOC a
material that is typically reduced in mass by about 50 per cent and in volume
by up to 70 per cent, meaning that there’s much less material to be taken away
from that site. This FLOC is SRF.
“This reduces on-site vehicle movements in places like a shopping centre waste
compound, and then the associated carbon impacts of moving that material from
the place of generation to its final destination. It takes what would be a
natural process of four to six weeks and reduces that to about three days.”
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SRF can be used in cement kilns for coal combustion, helping to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the production of
cement, as well as supporting the move from a linear to a circular economy.
XO System
Feedstock
Floc Output
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TACKLING HIDDEN WASTE
There are, though, a number of issues to overcome before organisations can
take advantage of new ways of handling waste.
Lucy Jeynes, director of Larch Consulting, believes there needs to be a shift
within the FM community encompassing both in-house teams and FM service
providers towards seeing waste as part of the sustainability agenda, rather
than something that just needs to be “dealt with”. “Waste isn’t really
considered a strategic part of FM for a lot of clients, compared to other
services,” she says.
Overcoming obstacles
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“It usually sits with cleaning, rather than with sustainability, so it’s not
necessarily in the bit of the organisation where the knowledge about the
alternatives would sit. There’s quite a lot of work to be done there, between
us as an industry and clients to get the dialogue going with the right people
inside the client organisation.” Waste is often not seen as a priority even by
those who are tasked with addressing sustainability issues, she adds.
Dr Stephen Wise believes FMs also need to be prepared to challenge their waste
management providers, asking them what really happens to mixed residual waste,
and what other technologies are out there to help reduce environmental damage
and carbon emissions. “An organisation
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we’ve been working with was told by its waste contractor that no waste went to
landfill, which typically means that it all goes for energy from waste,” he
says.
“But when we pressed the waste handling company, they revealed they were still
sending 200 tonnes of their waste to landfill every month. That allowed them
to understand what was happening, and to make a change. The more you
understand about what’s happening, the greater the tools you have access to in
terms of making a change to your current practices.”
69%
of FMs believe their waste management provider could do more to support them
with environmental targets, according to the Facilitate survey.
Catherine Burrows is head of waste management for Sodexo. She believes FM
providers need to do a better job of educating both clients and employees
about what they can do to reduce waste in the first place. She says,
Ideally we’ll have no waste in the future and everything will be in that
circular loop where it gets reused, recycled or repurposed.
“You may have come across the plastic bottles versus canned water debate, or
paper cups versus compostables. Each of those is a complex topic about
ensuring we have the correct disposal routes, so we can eliminate single-use
products.” Part of this involves making sure local facilities are available to
compost items such as cups, she says, and the picture across the UK is mixed.
“We’re also looking at the internal infrastructure around how our internal
segregation stations are set up,” she adds. “We need to nudge users to recycle
better, and give them that awareness of what can and can’t be recycled.” It’s
not something that any one person or job role can take on, she says, but is
something that can be driven by FM.
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TACKLING HIDDEN WASTE
Facing the future
The ongoing pressure to meet net-zero emissions obligations and reduce carbon
emissions means organisations will increasingly have to look at their waste as
a serious option when it comes to improving their sustainability credentials.
The move towards reporting Scope 3 emissions which is likely to be mandated
in the upcoming standard from The International Sustainability Standards Board
means even more focus will come on mixed residual waste, believes Ann
Beavis, sustainability special interest group committee member at the
Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management.
“This will lead the change to waste becoming more strategic, as companies will
have to find different ways of reporting on it,” she predicts. “We’ve been
stuck with recycling levels as an indicator for far too long, and that’s
probably led to residual waste in particular not being looked at or
considered.” Defra’s recent decision to consult on ending the practice of
sending biodegradable waste to
landfill also means this practice is likely to come under increasing scrutiny
in the years ahead.
What’s clear is that FMs have an important role to play in helping to shape
the debate and push waste management firms to use of some of the more
innovative technologies, including those that can be undertaken on a client’s
own site.
“By tackling it at source, we’re helping to reduce carbon emissions from
transportation, cut waste management costs for the FM management company, and
helping to generate a product and a commodity from that waste,” points out
Wise. “That all helps in terms of environmental credentials, reducing carbon
impact and moving towards net zero.”
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CASE STUDY: M A X R ECYC L E
FOCUS
The waste handler perspective
For many organisations, collaborating with a responsible local waste handler one that understands the pressures that dealing with Scope 3 emissions entails can be advantageous. One such handler is Scott Hawthorne, managing director of Max Recycle, a waste collections business based in Houghton le Spring in the north-east of England.
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CASE STUDY: MA X RECYCLE
Chemical recycling back to new products
Waste to transport fuels
Use as a replacement for primary fossil fuels in heavy industry e.g. cement
Incineration with heat and/or power
Incineration with energy recovery
Incineration without heat or power
Advetec XO Process
FOCUS
Prepared Feedstock
Solid Recovered Fuel
Refuse Derived Fuel `Black Bag’ Mixed Residule Waste
Hawthorne’s business is soon to make use of Advetec’s XO systems to turn contaminated mixed residual waste into solid recovered fuel. It’s purchased one machine to date – the XO22. This unit is capable of processing 10 tonnes of unrecyclable waste per day, or the equivalent of a truckload of waste. The unit is set to be based on Max Recycle’s own site, which presents Scope 3 reporting gains for customers. Hawthorne is open to the idea of taking more units in future.
The idea of being able to combine collections of waste from different sites in
one vehicle is also appealing.
If the waste still must go to landfill, it will be stable. This means it will
not break down further, and it does not contain leachate the liquid
pollution that seeps from waste or methane, which is one of the major
greenhouse gases.
He says there are a couple of key drivers that make it appealing from a waste management perspective. “The appeal of this is the entry point,” he says. “It’s a manageable size for a lot of companies. You can afford to speculate without taking too much risk.”
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CASE STUDY: M A X RECYCLE
“The crazy thing about waste is you pay for water content to be disposed as
waste,” says Scott Hawthorne. “Anything that loses water saves us money.”
Max Recycle will send its FLOC, or SRF, to a local cement kiln, helping to
decarbonise the local community and the cement and construction industries.
“The impact of just one XO22 unit processing 10 tonnes of non-recyclable waste into SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) daily for a year, and being used as a coal replacement in cement production, is significant. It will remove 875 tonnes of coal, saving 439 tonnes of CO2e, resulting in a 95% reduction in CO2e.”
A closer relationship between FMs and waste providers is needed to affect meaningful change. Here are some valuable questions to ask your waste management provider right now:
· Where does all our waste go, including Mixed Residual Waste?
· What really happens to the Mixed Residual Waste that is collected from your
sites?
· If it is used for energy from waste, is that energy directed into the
electricity network?
· Are you aware of new technologies around aerobic digestion that can create
Solid Recovered Fuel?
· How much carbon is emitted as a result of transporting untreated Mixed
Residual Waste to processing facilities?
· Are you aware that Mixed Residual Waste disposal can be reduced through an
on-site process?
· What else can we do to reduce carbon emissions that stem from waste
handling?
· Is the residual waste shredded and sent as RDF for waste export to another
country/continent?
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How our technology works
Six steps to turn contaminated
waste into Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)
using Advetec’s XO systems.
The process begins when waste goes through an industrial shredder to ensure a
consistent and optimum particle size enters the biomass.
STEP 2 Waste shredding
The system initially heats the waste to kick start the bacterial activity.
Once optimum temperatures
have been achieved the exothermic reaction self-generates the majority of the
heat required. The heating system is then used to maintain the
temperature above a minimum threshold for continual operation 24/7. This
creates resiliency
in the system for periods of inactivity.
STEP 3 Heating and bacteria
Advetec’s unique bio-stimulants are added automatically. This ensures a robust
biomass is maintained and allows the system to cope
with the inevitable existence of biocides within the waste stream.
STEP 4 BioStim
First step is to test the client’s waste to ensure the most efficient bio
process with a significant mass reduction.
STEP 1 Waste stream testing
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Advetec’s Jim Lovett
Click the image above or Scan the QR code to view Advetec XO live
demonstration
The output material is called post-process FLOC or SRF. SRF can be used as
fuel or have further value extracted. It typically has a moisture content less
than 15% (with organic matter reduced significantly during digestion) and an
increased calorific value.
Depending on the waste stream and customers’ requirements, the FLOC can be
used as SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) or have further value extracted.
STEP 6 Outcome: Solid Recovered
Fuel (SRF)
Each Advetec XO machine has multiple chambers, which are aerated to allow the
aerobic process to flourish. The waste is indexed through
the process, allowing for the addition of fresh waste at regular intervals.
STEP 5 Rapid digestion
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