In the 21st century the focus on recycling has been squarely on plastics, card, and general household waste. This focus has reaped great returns, with the UK exceeding its required 60% recycled packaging waste target from the EU by roughly 10%. Whilst this sounds great, there is still much more work to do.
Recycling waste from UK households fell in 2018 from previous years, and whereas the amount of waste going to landfill fell by 500,000 tonnes, the level of rubbish being incinerated rose by 400,000 tonnes. According to the paper “Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories” 1Mg of municipal waste equates to roughly 0.7-1.2Mg of carbon dioxide (CO2 Output). Therefore, if we take the average of 0.95Mg CO2 to 1MG of waste, we would be expecting 380,000 tonnes of CO2 increased output – that’s over 21,000 double decker buses in weight!
Rubbers do not decompose easily, so we launched an investigation to see how much of it makes up UK waste. We contacted the UK Government Environments Agency with a freedom of information request. Unfortunately, it transpired that there is only one waste code for rubber and plastics. Therefore, there is no clear data showing how much rubber ends up in landfill in the UK and there is no accountability on that.
The most troubling aspect of this lack of clarity is that we are expecting hundreds of play areas across the UK to be closing over the next few years. This is in part due to Government cutbacks by 2021, potentially in the order of £20-25m. Between 2014-2016 local authorities across England closed 214 children’s playgrounds. Taking 214 play areas with a conservative estimate of 50sqm rubber surfacing, that could be over 250 tonnes of rubber going to landfill. We know of one Council that is closing over 100 play areas in the next year – that could be as much as 120 tonnes of rubber.
Many play areas have EPDM rubber surfacing as a safety surface, because it’s a safe and non-toxic substance to children. However, if all those play areas close, all that rubber surfacing could get sent to landfill, because there is no remit to trace the recycing of it in the UK. In contrast to that there are numerous tyre recycling initiatives.
Our goal is to change that system dramatically, and introduce a cyclical recycling method to EPDM surfacing. This would lower the portion going to landfill and incineration, and reduce the amount of virgin rubber that’s imported. The benefits of this are huge. There will be less CO2 emissions from the manufacture of the rubber, a reduction in CO2 emissions from the ships carrying it to the UK, and further reductions in the incineration or export of rubber to other countries as well.
We grind up the rubber, which uses far less energy, and produces much less CO2 than the manufacture of virgin EPDM rubber. The product created at the end is just as safe and hardwearing as the original. Our question to you is, why waste it and send it to landfill, when it could be re-used in new play areas or pathways?
Please contact us today to see how we can help you on your next rubber disposal project.
