Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
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Chapter 7: The question of <strong>the</strong> futureWaste compounds waste. Take human excrement. Shit is unpleasant and dangerous butis basically composed of nutrients in roughly <strong>the</strong> same proportions as those containedin artificial fertiliser: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It is also a potential sourceof energy. It is naturally contaminated with pathogens from <strong>the</strong> human gut which canbe treated fairly easily. It is unnaturally contaminated with heavy metals and chemicalcompounds because people <strong>the</strong>mselves now carry a ‘body burden’ of pollutants.Metals can be sedimented out, but <strong>the</strong> sediments <strong>the</strong>n need disposal. Many chemicalcompounds are more difficult to remove. Thus <strong>the</strong> toxic environment created bycapital compromises <strong>the</strong> value of sewage as manure. Conventional plants are not builtto make sewage available for energy or manure. Ra<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong>y use high energy inputsand chemical disinfectants and, at <strong>the</strong> end, produce a toxic sludge. Similarly, a largeportion of <strong>the</strong> municipal waste stream – invariably more than half and estimated atup to 70% in India – is composed of garden waste and food which, with little effort,could be separated, composted and returned as energy to <strong>the</strong> soil. In landfills, thisresource turns toxic.In Paul Connett’s view, waste is a low-tech problem that has been compounded ra<strong>the</strong>rthan addressed by high-tech solutions. 107 The experience of recycling would seem toconfirm this view. North and South, <strong>the</strong> most successful recycling is relatively low tech.At <strong>the</strong> Bogota conference, delegates observed that Sou<strong>the</strong>rn countries are adoptingcostly and environmentally destructive first world technologies such as compactortrucks and incinerators. They argued that informal systems are more efficient andagreed “to reject incineration and burial-based processing and defend systems thatsupport <strong>the</strong> popular economy” [quoted in Bonner 2008: 9].Box 22 shows that <strong>the</strong> better part of municipal waste disposal is unnecessary. Thefigures for reduction achieved through recycling are not strictly comparable as <strong>the</strong>ywere developed using different methodologies. Never<strong>the</strong>less, it is striking that <strong>the</strong>results from informal recycling in <strong>the</strong> South are at least as good as those from formalisedrecycling in <strong>the</strong> North.Such high rates of diversion rely first on composting because of <strong>the</strong> high proportionof ‘wet waste’. In <strong>the</strong>se examples, composting is based on a variety of techniquesusing static piles, windrows, worm composting or vessels such as bio-digesters. Peoplecompost waste even in cramped conditions using small pots on <strong>the</strong> balconies of flats.107 Talk given at <strong>the</strong> launching of Target Zero Canada, Toronto, Canada, November 21, 2000.- 184 - groundWork - <strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong>