Waste and resources might not have made it onto the agenda for COP26 but better waste and resource management not only protect the environment from the impacts of illegal burning and dumping but can also help us meet the significant reductions in carbon emissions we must achieve to mitigate the worst effects of the climate emergency.
At Dsposal we believe one of the key first steps in moving towards a more resource efficient circular economy is making sure that everything that is ‘thrown away’ is kept in the legitimate waste and resources sector. Duty of Care compliance (that is meeting your legal obligations to the waste you produce) may not seem like an obvious bedfellow of the circular economy, but any waste or recycling that ends up in the hands of illegal operators is almost certainly not going to end up being handled responsibly and properly. From a circular economy perspective, it is ‘leakage’ from the system.
Waste in the Wrong Hands
Unfortunately, at the moment, far too much of our country’s waste ends up in the wrong hands. In the Environment Agency’s recently published National Waste Crime survey respondents from the waste industry estimated 18% of all waste generated in England to be illegally managed, that’s around 34m tonnes a year. There are no definitive figures on the extent of waste crime as much of it goes unreported and unrecorded. We do know that it is an industry that is used by serious and organised crime and that the scale of waste crime is rising. The Mapping the risk of serious and organised crime infiltrating legitimate businesses report from the European Commission earlier this year put the estimated annual revenues derived from illicit waste trafficking to be at a mid-point figure of €9.5b across the EU (figure includes the UK). They placed the revenue for the illicit waste market in the UK at a mid-point estimate of €2.58b. The report also found that the UK had the highest proportion of hazardous waste that disappeared from the legal market with 64% ending up illegally managed.
A number of waste industry professionals I have spoken to in the UK were sceptical of these figures, and like I said, it’s basically impossible to have a definitive understanding of the scale of the problem. In the UK we have been relying on the reports published by the ESA for an indication of the extent of the problem and their report Counting the cost of UK Waste Crime published this summer has put the direct cost of waste crime for England at £924m a year, up from £604m in 2015.
Toward a Circular Economy
The other key step we must take to move us towards a more resource efficient circular economy is to gather and publish the data on the waste that we create. Better data would allow us to understand the true scale of the issue of waste crime and better know how to tackle it. It also means we can analyse and understand the materials flowing through our economies as waste and instead treat them like the valuable resources that they are.
While waste and resources may not be a theme at COP26, we see more and more organisations we speak to interested in doing the right thing with their waste and making it a priority as part of their ESG agenda. At the same time, we’ve seen a huge increase in commitment to compliance and better practices from the legitimate waste businesses we’re speaking to. The pandemic has also driven the digital transformation of the sector and we’re seeing more and more waste management businesses embracing technology and implementing software to streamline their business processes and enable remote working.
Dsposal providing digital solutions
Over the past year we’ve been working with waste management companies to develop our enterprise management software for the SME waste sector, Paperwork. Because compliance is so important to us and the businesses we’re working with, we’ve woven it into the fabric of the product making it easier and quicker to meet your legal obligations to waste. And because we know the value of good quality data Paperwork is built to allow businesses to capture that valuable information efficiently and use it to deliver insights to improve their operations. We have been astounded by the level of interest from SME waste management companies since we launched and love seeing how it makes life easier for their staff, helps them win tenders and deliver excellent customer service.
Because, as I mentioned, waste producers are starting to demand much higher levels of transparency and commitment to compliance. My Women in Innovation award is for our project working with NHS Trusts to build on our current Compliance Dashboard to deliver a platform for waste producers to better manage their waste. The NHS has set ambitious targets to become carbon neutral and tackling waste is a key component. Delivering software that allows them to easily keep on top of compliance, manage their waste contracts and get the key data they need to achieve their targets is a total privilege. We have also seen interest from international brands, retailers, pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers who are all desperate to do better with their waste and resources and move their businesses towards circular models.
Hope
This fills me with hope. Tech isn’t a silver bullet, but the right tech and data can guide and support us to move in the right direction. At Dsposal we have long talked about our concept of ‘passive compliance’ – that we need to make doing the right thing, the easiest thing. I think this applies to so much more than just helping people meet their waste Duty of Care. Imagine if the easy choice was also the more sustainable choice, the more ethical choice. I am all for awareness raising and educating but this not only relies on you being able to reach everyone with that message but also deliver it in a way that compels them to change. Convenience is something that drives a lot of our behaviour so if we really want massive change (and let’s be honest we don’t just want it, we need it) then rather than rely on convincing people to care and change their habits, lets focus on making the thing we need them to do the convenient thing to do. That’s what we’re doing at Dsposal anyway.
It’s great that so many organisations are now putting sustainability at the heart of what they do, but what about all the organisations that aren’t. I love working with businesses whose values align with ours, but I also want to help all those organisations who don’t think like us. I want to build tech that means that regardless of their motivations or how ‘aware’ they are they can be part of the solution too, because we are all waste producers and we all have our part to play.
