Effective use of data in waste strategy planning in the UK

Effective waste strategy planning for sustainable and integrated waste management is predicated on high-quality information. However a review of recent local authority waste strategies in England, part of a research project into effective use of data and analysis in waste strategy planning carried out by researchers at the Open University, showed little evidence of being based on thorough analysis. Lack of good data on many aspects of performance restricts what can be achieved in planning better integrated, more sustainable waste management provision. This paper draws from the results of that project and illustrates improvements that could be achieved by using better quality data and analysis to inform decision making. The research explored the use of various types of information and analysis including compositional analysis and establishing diversion rates; scenario building; applications of geographical information systems; understanding and measuring public participation; the use of trials to collect relevant data; and understanding of the effects of recycling schemes on residual waste composition. The general principals and methodologies of each approach are illustrated by examples derived from the authors’ analysis and interpretation of local authority data provided by case study partners, and show how local data can provide relevant and effective local answers. INTRODUCTION The management of municipal waste in the UK is currently going through a period of considerable and rapid change, with EU and UK government initiatives being significant drivers in this changing environment. Alongside these drivers, existing infrastructure and waste management systems, financial constraints, political climate and influences (local but also national and international), social and technical issues, knowledge, contacts and prejudices will all play a part in shaping local authority waste management strategic planning. Balancing these often-conflicting demands, and planning in an integrated way for sustainable waste management, is a major challenge faced by local authorities today. In helping to address these challenges, researchers in the Integrated Waste Systems group undertook a two year research project, which is described fully in the report ‘Developing Integrated Waste Management Strategies: Information Needs and the Role of Locally-Based Data’. The report is available from http://technology.open.ac.uk/iws, and this paper is a summary of some of the main points that emerged from that research. It was directed at exploring how recognising and responding to strategy information needs combined with the use of locallybased data could promote effective waste strategy planning. Indeed the importance of generating sound data which are based on local conditions and which are truly relevant to ISWA World Environment Congress, Rome, Italy 2004 2 local needs is a key element in this work. This paper highlights some of the ways in which research can inform the process of developing integrated waste strategies. It illustrates improvements that could be achieved by using better data and analyses to inform decision making. Integrated waste management (IWM) describes an approach in which decisions on waste management needs to take account of different waste streams, collection, treatment and disposal methods to achieve a balance between collection and treatment methods that strives for environmental sustainability, cost effectiveness and social acceptability. This integration is beginning to be taken a step further in considering waste management as a part of a wider resource management system, and moving more towards identifying wastes as potential resources. Planning and delivering IWM is a key objective of UK national and local waste strategies [9], [10], . In order to do this effectively, this research argues that a range of information and analyses can or should be included in assessing future options to determine strategies for IWM. It gives examples of analytical tools to assist strategic planning, including scenario building, geographical information systems, compositional analysis and establishing diversion rates, understanding and measuring public participation, and understanding of the effects of recycling schemes on residual waste composition, combined with the importance of relevant local data and how it might be gathered, so that local data provides local answers. The general principals and methodologies of each approach are illustrated in the research by case study examples derived from analysis and interpretation of data provided by case study partners, Project Integra. Project Integra is the partnership in Hampshire, in southern England, between the eleven district councils, Portsmouth and Southampton unitary authorities, Hampshire County Council, and the private waste contractor Hampshire Waste Services. REVIEW OF STRATEGY PLANNING Strategy planning by English waste authorities was reviewed in 2002, by examining a selection of plans from 20 areas across the country, in order to identify how these local authorities used data in their planning and decision-making. This review showed that whilst the term integrated was used repeatedly by all authorities, it was not necessarily reflected in an integrated approach, either to the planning process, or the systems proposed to provide the future basis for waste management in their area. In selecting particular waste management options, most plans mentioned consideration of a number of factors including not only cost, but ability to meet Best Value targets, to satisfy political or social considerations, the overall environmental impacts, and seeking the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO). However none of authorities studied considered all these aspects or attempted to integrate these multiple criteria in its decision making process. Although many strategies referred to identifying the waste management system that is the BPEO, it was rarely assessed, and where it was this was limited to using Life Cycle Analysis to compare treatment options. Only half of the authorities evaluated referred to local studies of waste composition involving sampled surveys of collected household waste; of these only two included analyses of Civic Amenity (CA) site wastes in the analysis. Little attempt was made by the authorities to integrate collected waste data with that on waste and recyclable materials collected through CA and bring sites, even though such a picture is critically important in planning collection methods and infrastructure to provide an integrated approach to meeting targets. Very few strategies considered public participation (either in terms of how many participate or how effectively they capture targeted materials) in their planning documents, or acknowledged the need to use data on participation and capture rates, with locally-based compositional data for ISWA World Environment Congress, Rome, Italy 2004 3 the whole household or municipal waste stream, to identify where improvements could be made, and to plan more effectively. Less than a quarter of authorities included data on capture rates for recycling, and overall few strategies included any specific analysis of how their proposals would achieve the proposed improved recycling rates or meet their targets. Overall the review concluded that there was little evidence that understanding of the waste stream and waste composition determined the direction of strategy planning. USE OF COMPOSITIONAL DATA TO IMPROVE STRATEGY PLANNING Having reviewed strategy planning approaches and identified a number of failings related to developing integrated waste management strategies, a unique methodological approach was developed. This aimed to integrate operational data with sampled composition analysis, and allow data collected from different household waste streams to be integrated to give a profile of the total municipal waste stream. Data integrated in this way is contended to give a more accurate basis for evaluation of performance and planning to achieve recycling and other targets. At present local waste management strategies often fail to take into account all household waste arisings, including those taken to Civic Amenity sites and ‘bring’ facilities. Most studies that sample household waste arisings, even recent ones, focus on analysing collected residual and kerbside recycled waste. Some authorities have undertaken compositional studies at CA sites, usually sampling and analysing materials brought in per site visit [3], . However data on this waste stream is limited, and although weight data is combined to give total waste arisings, compositional analysis of CA site waste is rarely integrated with that from collected wastes (i.e. ‘dustbin’ waste). Collected household or ‘dustbin’ waste accounts for around 60% of total household waste, with CA sites wastes comprising another 15%. It is unrealistic to assume that the total household waste stream will conform to the characteristics of one part of the picture, albeit a major component. The research concluded that analysis that deals with one aspect of the household waste stream in isolation can build a misleading picture of the amount and type of waste produced by households in any particular area. This can prove a serious weakness in the development of realistic waste management scenarios, and lead to unrealistic choices for future strategy. This point is addressed in a paper for the UK Government Cabinet Office’s Strategy Unit on the analysis of household waste composition which is introduced with the sentence: “There is much confusion over the meaning and validity of household waste compositional statistics in the UK” . It goes on to comment that “compositional studies in the UK have focused almost exclusively on establishing the composition of residual ‘dustbin’ waste” and consequently that ‘dustbin’ or collected refuse data is often misconstrued as representing the composition of all municipal waste arisings. And as a result “the lack of credible national estimates (for waste composition) has important implications for the development of waste policies” . It is essential therefore to integrate as far as possible the findings for the different outlets for households waste, particularly for CA sites and collected wastes through kerbside recycling and ‘dustbin’ residual waste collections, in relation to the different methods of waste containment and different 'waste catchment' characteristics. This should enable variations in compositional samples to be explained more clearly, both in terms of socio-economic and infrastructure differences between areas. The methodology describes how sampled data can be classified by ‘cluster analysis’ which groups together areas with similar waste characteristics to create a generalised composition for each of the main groups or clusters obtained. When this was applied to the Hampshire case study data it resulted in individual districts or boroughs becoming part of a group or cluster. The mean compositional profile of each cluster can be taken to be a more accurate ISWA World Environment Congress, Rome, Italy 2004 4 reflection of each area’s waste composition than would be produced by a simple mean of a limited set of data from that area. This approach has merit where there are only a few data points in each district or borough. This reduces the overall influence of those individual data points (and in particular any erroneous data) in producing district or borough level compositional estimates. It can also be applied to other groupings of authorities or areas within authorities. Figure 1. Reconstructing the waste stream The method developed for building an integrated compositional analysis is shown diagrammatically in figure 1. The approach taken was first to apply the clustered group compositional analysis to the annual collected residual waste data. After similarly applying average compositional analyses to each of the annual kerbside recycling totals, CA and ‘bring’ site statistics, the four waste streams were recombined to a better indication of total household waste composition for each district. When applied to the compositional and waste data for Hampshire, the compositional profile of the reconstructed waste stream including CA site waste showed a higher proportion of putrescible waste, but significantly lower percentage of paper and card, compared with the composition of collected residual waste and kerbside recyclables only. Looking at differences within the County shows widely varying compositions between Districts which reflect the different mix of collection infrastructure and policies in place. Figure 2 shows a comparison of two Districts, Eastleigh which collects residual waste alternate weekly in wheeled bins and Hart which freely accepts garden waste in their weekly wheeled bin collections. Eastleigh has only 19% putrescible waste in its collected residual and recyclable waste, compared to Hart’s 39%, and a smaller amount of collected waste per household. However Eastleigh has very high CA site use, and when CA site waste is included in the composition Operational or