CLEANSTREAM

By Mal Williams
Cylch - Wales Community Recycling Network

Introduction

We do not have a waste problem we have a mixed waste problem.

The rhetoric within the waste debate disguises one simple fact - that if we separate used materials in the first place, we have an opportunity.

Cylch would like to introduce CLEANSTREAM - Total Resource Recovery Systems as the vehicle that creates and develops this opportunity. It sets a standard and describes a process to achieve radical change in the way we manage resources after first use.

Post-war generations have made a serious mistake by paying scant attention to the subject of waste. A waste industry has evolved by investing in ways of getting waste out-of-sight and out-of-mind as efficiently as possible. The faster and cheaper the better.

In this industry Landfill is top of the profit hierarchy but bottom of the sustainable waste management hierarchy. Wealth creation and patterns of consumption now depend on the instantaneous destruction of resources after first use.

This is not sustainable - it is the environmental footprint we are leaving for future generations to deal with - in the form of wasted resources and pollution of land, sea and air. We have begun to pay the cost of cleaning up the mess caused by our neglect, and the costs are rising fast.

The planet is biting back; the pollution is long-term, irreversible in some cases. We are being forced to take notice and make changes.

Legislation from Europe in the form of the landfill directive has arrived to make us change. Waste reduction is to become a statutory duty for Local Authorities for the very first time from July 16th 2001, specific and challenging targets must be achieved.

This document defines a standard in resource recovery called CLEANSTREAM and shows how Wales can utilise its new found political independence and Objective 1 status in order to reap the tremendous benefits of changing to this very Sustainable Resource Management System.

It is a radical approach to a high-achieving system that will enable Wales to exceed all the targets set in the new legislation. It also has the distinct advantage of being the cheapest long-term strategy.

Download a full copy of CLEANSTREAM (pdf 2MB) here