Richard Maino

LONDON: A RADICAL research project is under way to find innovative, new uses for the tonnes of items that companies and people throw away.

It could help the United Kingdom to avoid European penalties of up to 180 million pounds a year if the country fails to meet targets to reduce the mountains of rubbish sent to landfill sites by 2020.

With the UK burying more than 18.8 million tonnes of household waste - two million more than any other European Union country - a team at Teesside University has a grant to find innovative uses for industrial and domestic rubbish in its area, north-east England.

As well as researching for new uses for industrial waste, the grant of 1.76 million pounds will allow the centre to investigate ways of re-using domestic waste collected from kerbsides by regional councils.

The funding has been awarded to the industrial symbiosis team within the university's Clean Environment Management Centre (Clemance). Industrial symbiosis is the practice of recycling waste for use as raw materials.

The grant will help Clemance towards its target of reducing CO2 by more than 250,000 tonnes and preventing 250,000 tonnes of waste going to landfill, making environmental savings as well as improving business profitability.

It will help provide assistance to 40 businesses each year, including small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

Christine Parry is based at Clemance and is project manager for North East Industrial Symbiosis. She said: "Companies need to consider ways of re-using their waste. Legislation is constantly driving them in that direction and they are also facing increased landfill charges.

"A growing number of materials are already banned from landfill, such as electrical items, tyres, liquids and gypsum, with more due to be added. This will increase the pressure on companies to find alternative uses for their waste.

"We need to need to increase the capacity and will of SMEs and their workforces to improve business performance by recognising that waste is a useful raw material and a resource to be used," she added.

"There are numerous opportunities for collaborative networking, sharing resources and access to technical information, research and support for virgin material savings between companies. The funding we have received will help us with our work in that area," said Ms Parry (http://www.tees.ac.uk/clemance/).

The funding for research into recycling household rubbish is from the Institute for Local Governance and the work is supported by Hartlepool and Gateshead councils.

Clemance senior practitioner Kirk Bridgewood said: "The study was prompted by the recent collapse in the market for recycled items which could potentially give councils a major problem if they are unable to sell the collected materials.

"In addition, there were stories about materials being stockpiled because no one wanted to buy. We want to find out ways of making sure that does not happen again and we will also be looking at the amount of materials exported to places like China.

"We want to see if there are ways in which materials can be recycled in the north-east of England instead. Plastics are a good example. There are companies in this area that could use discarded plastics as raw materials," he added.

NE Industrial Symbiosis Network is part of Solutions for Business, the government's package of publicly funded business support designed to help companies start and grow.

The funding includes:

* one million pounds over four years from the International Synergies company that helps firms identify new uses for waste produced as part of their industrial processes.

* 621,000 pounds from the European Regional Development Fund competitiveness programme for north-east England, managed by One North East on behalf of the European Commission, national government and regional partners.

* 143,000 pounds from the Institute for Local Governance that helps the five north-east universities work with public organisations such as councils and emergency services to reduce waste.