Jobs from Waste: Employment Opportunities in Recycling

with support from

 

WASTE WATCH is the leading organisation that works with community groups, local authorities and industry to educate, inform and raise awareness on waste reduction, reuse and recycling. Waste Watch is a national charity established in 1987, and is supported by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, its membership and business sponsors. It provides educational projects, information, consultancy, publications, training events, campaigning and advocacy for all sectors.

Waste Watch
96 Tooley Street
London, SE1 2TH

Tel: 020 7089 2100
Fax: 020 7403 4802

Web: www.wastewatch.org.uk

Waste Watch gratefully acknowledges support for this publication through Landfill Tax funds donated by Biffa Waste Services Limited.

Waste Watch is part-funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions' Environmental Action Fund. Registered charity no. 1005417. Company registered by guarantee no: 2649156. ENTRUST registration number 871023.

© Waste Watch 1999

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN number 1 898026 97 1

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Doreen Fedrigo at Waste Watch for writing the report. Many thanks to Professor Chris Coggins at the Waste Management and Technology Centre at the University of Sheffield, and to Peter Jones from Biffa Waste Services Limited, for their endless supply of knowledge and information. Special thanks to Dean Walton at Waste Watch for his deft abilities in Excel which were of great assistance in preparing the job creation projections. Thanks also to Barbara Herridge and Jim Fielder from Waste Watch for their comments on the draft.

Design and Artwork: wave (01424 715754)

Contents page

Foreword

Introduction

Executive Summary

Establishing the Baseline

            Waste arisings

            Current employment according to the statistics

Latest Data

            Collection

            Kerbside collection

            Bring/Drop-off sites

            Civic Amenity sites

            Sorting

            Reprocessing

            Paper and card

            Glass

            Steel

            Aluminium

            Plastic

Projections

            Issues for further consideration

            Scenario 1: Meeting the 25 percent national recycling target by 2000

            Scenario 2: Meeting the 30 percent national recycling target by 2010

            Scenario 3: Meeting the Packaging Waste Regulations Target by 2001

Sustainable Waste Management and Job Creation

List of Tables

Table 1: Current jobs in collection, sorting and reprocessing of household recycling materials

Table 2: UK Municipal Waste Arisings

Table 3: Total employee jobs by SIC codes in Great Britain, 1997

Table 4: Comparison of figures for tonnes of household materials recycled

Table 5: Number of jobs in the collection of household recycling materials

Table 6: Annual averages of employee processing tonnages in MRFs

Table 7: Relationship between level of technology at a MRF and employee numbers

Table 8: Employee profile and materials capacity for two clean MRFs

Table 9: Number of jobs in the sorting of household recycling materials

Table 10: Number of jobs in the reprocessing of household recycling materials

Table 11: Current jobs in collection, sorting and reprocessing of household recycling materials

Table 12: Estimate of job creation on 25% recycling target by 2000

Table 13: Estimate of job creation on 30% recycling target by 2010

Table 14: Forward Look tonnage projections

Table 15: Processing and Sorting potential based upon Forward Look projections