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Put Re-Use On Your Agenda

Ricardo-AEA helped develop a re-use plan for Leicestershire County Council. Here Mariam Ajadi and Adam Read look at the issue of materials re-use, drawing case study material from Leicestershire and other UK projects

You Can Re-Use Almost Anything

e-use is any recovery operation by which products or components that have become waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived. Re-use activities involve: direct re-use when no repair work is required to bring the item to a usable condition refurbishment which involves, for example, the replacement of worn parts or redecorating and item to make it "good as new", such as polishing a piece of furniture before it is sold repair is the correction of specified faults in a product at its end-of-life before it is put back into service as demonstrated by Bright Sparks, a small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) repair project remanufacturing is a re-use option that requires the total dismantling of a product and the restoration and replacement of its major components.

The local authority bulky waste collection service is either delivered in-house or externally by a waste management contractor. Similarly, independent operators run parallel bulky waste collection services alongside local authority schemes as practiced by re-use organisations that are members of the Furniture Re-use Network (FRN) and independent waste operators such as Any Junk, a bulky waste removal and disposal service. Although there are several ways of collecting bulky waste materials, the mechanisms for delivering increased re-use diversion are more consistent: Making re-use count: local authorities and waste management contractors are driven to increase recycling rates, and as the revised Waste Framework Directive includes both "preparing for re-use" and recycling in the 50 percent recycling target, measuring accurately the amount of items diverted for re-use is essential, often through partnership working. The FRN average weight is an example of a database designed to assist re-use stakeholders account for the number of items and total volume re-used. Re-use mapping: stakeholders looking to implement reuse initiatives need to understand the operational scale of existing re-use activities and analyse the ability for re-use stakeholders to increase their operational capacity without hindering existing capabilities. A re-use mapping exercise was implemented in a recently concluded project in Leicestershire, between Leicester city and Rutland to understand the existing re-use services and identify gaps that could be breached by potential opportunities through collaborative efforts.

Product re-use is applicable to almost any item although specific materials offer the greatest potential for re-use. Electrical and electronic goods, textiles (including clothing) and furniture are materials currently highlighted by WRAP to offer greatest potential both for economic growth and improving resource security and recyclability, as well as reducing carbon emissions. These household materials are made available by charitable re-use organisations, such as Furniture Matters and Restore Community Project, as well as commercial IT re-use/asset management businesses. Clearly there is a lot happening with regards to business based (or social enterprise led) re-use, responding to a mix of financial, social and environmental drivers, a clear reflection of EU-wide concerns about resource availability, risks and rising supply chain costs. But what is happening in the public sector, and how can local authorities help drive greater acceptance and uptake of the re-use agenda? Local authorities collect and manage the disposal of bulky waste items from several sources including households, housing associations, arms length management organisations, registered social landlords and schools.

Evaluating service options: to assess the opportunities for an increased re-use diversion, each re-use stakeholder should think "win-win" and align local re-use infrastructure with identified opportunities in order to balance the demand and supply for re-used goods as demonstrated in WRAPs bulky waste guidance. Furthermore, devising a business case that supports stakeholders in understanding attributed benefits and KPIs for each opportunity as implemented during the development of the Surrey Re-Use Network (SRN) is essential for supporting a long-lasting re-use partnership.

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From L to R: furniture (at Surrey's Home From Home), electrical items (at Bright Spark) and clothes (at the Attic, managed by MRC), all set for re-use Partnership working: an intriguing feature of re-use activities is engagement with multiple stakeholders because organisations that collect the items suitable for re-use do not necessarily have access to re-use markets. This may bring together small disjointed social businesses that do not individually have the capacity to take on large scale waste management contracts but who could work in partnership to align themselves with identified opportunities both geographically and/or by material type. These partnerships can take a number of different forms including formal arrangements with one or more re-use organisations, as seen with the Somerset Waste Partnership and Somerset Re-Use Forum. Similarly, Revive Leeds, a partnership between three local charities Emmaus Leeds, SVP and SLATE provides an avenue for local residents to donate items for re-use as well as buy re-used goods at bargain prices at a household waste recycling centre (HWRC) in Leeds. Similarly, Re-Use Networks are avenues for two or more social businesses working towards an agreed objective within a defined geographical area share resources to deliver vehicle optimisation; collaborate in order to deliver larger scale contracts that they could not individually deliver; and to enhance the confidence of external partners in the longevity of the network should a member organisation cease to exist. SRN is an established group that represents and supports community based furniture and appliance re-use and recycling organisations in Surrey. Its strength has been reinforced by its successful re-use schemes, including the delivery of bulky waste collection services in partnership with Elmbridge and Guildford Borough Councils an award winning re-use campaign and the primary supplier of household goods for the Surrey County Councils new Local Welfare Provision Programme. Chris Wheeler, recycling and cleansing manager at Guildford Borough Council (GBC) commented on partnership working between SRN and GBC. "We wanted better outcomes for the bulky waste we collected, which was predominantly previously disposed of. The partnership involves SRN delivering all aspects of our bulky waste collection service as an independent organisation. GBC has stopped providing bulky waste collections directly as we are confident that the private (usually one man removal and disposal services) and third sector provides adequate levels of service. "The key benefits to GBC are that the service was cost neutral, this has not resulted in any budget changes, so all the improved recycling, re-use and social outcomes have come at no cost to the Council; a large amount of waste that we were throwing away is now being re-used and recycled; and we have aided the formation of a sustainable charitable business in our area, making affordable furniture available to those in need and giving important work experience and employment opportunities to areas of the community that are most in need of help. "In terms of the challenges to overcome, for me this was all about risk management particularly financial risk management for the charity. To effectively enhance the contribution of re-use to meeting local authority 50 percent recycling targets, preparing for re-use must be integrated with every step of waste collection and transportation through to disposal as shown in Figure 1. Procurement for re-use should be integrated into waste management contracts to maximise re-use diversion. Materials suitable for re-use should then be carefully collected via established ways of working (service options) and diverted to local re-use infrastructures for direct re-use, refurbishment, repair or remanufacture. Collecting quality materials is not enough, local authorities have to help drive "demand" and acceptance of re-used products and can do this through community engagement and education programmes to "give the material a second, third or fourth life". Re-use is an important step in delivering waste prevention as it helps to keep products in use for much longer. Reuse activities reconnect the dots between waste recycling and prevention while maximising social benefits. Setting aside the environmental benefits of re-use, the economic benefits are currently driving re-use activities in the UK. For example, WRAP estimates that 23 percent of the 348000 tonnes of WEEE collected at HWRCs could be re-used with minor repairs, resulting in an estimated value of 220m across the UK with a net value of approximately 100m after refurbishment costs and tests. WRAP is currently supporting local authorities and re-use stakeholders to align their bulky waste collection process via partnership working to maximise landfill diversion. Ricardo-AEA is working with WRAP to ensure re-use is firmly on the local authority, business and social enterprise agendas. CIWM

One Mans Waste Is Anothers Resource

Mariam is a consultant at Ricardo-AEA with over six years community sector knowledge and expertise of household product re-use. Adam is global practice director for Ricardo-AEAs Resource Efficiency and Waste Management Practice and has 18 years experience in the sector.

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