* To start a composting scheme at home yourself: Create a basic enclosure or heap away from the house. Keep a small airtight container in the kitchen for scraps and empty this daily into the pile. Each week place your garden and lawn clippings onto the pile. Include: Grass clippings, kitchen wastes, fruit and vegetable peelings, left over pet food, shredded prunings, tea leaves and bags, coffee grinding s, indoor plant cuttings, egg shells, manure, weeds, hair, cooking oils and vacuum cleaner dust. Avoid: Large branches, meat, fat, whole bones, plastic, waxy plant material, underground stems or any diseased or pesticide-contaminated plant material. Of course, glass, plastic, paper, empty batteries, chemicals, paint, and expired medicine do not belong here. The reason for avoiding diseased and contaminated plant material is to prevent the spreading of these diseases and contaminants through your garden. It is important that your compost heap should not become a rubbish heap, therefore the pile should be kept tidy and compact. This will also aid in retaining heat and moisture which is vital for decomposition. Another reason for keeping the site tidy is to avoid problems with pests as well as neighbourhood pets. The construction of an enclosure on the ground that still allows the movement of air and earthworms into the pile usually overcomes this problem. For best results maintain maximum aeration. This can be achieved by placing the coarser substances at the bottom and then building up with finer materials. In addition, mix low nitrogen materials such as straw, sawdust, and plant cuttings with high nitrogen materials such as food scraps, lawn clippings, weeds and leaves. The decomposition will vary with the content of the heap as well as the season, but after a couple of months the material should be ready for use. 34
It is also possible to construct your own composting unit using a 200 litre (44 gallon) drum with holes cut in the bottom and sides to allow for aeration. By placing a large hole or door at the bottom of the drum you can have a continuous system where material is added at the top and removed at the bottom. There are commercial composting units available and these range from concrete, plastic or wooden boxes to plastic or metal bins with tight fitting lids. Some of these units are available at hardware stores, nurseries and some department stores. The prices for units vary depending on the size and model you desire. fertilizer composting soil improvement garbage reduction COMPOST HEAP Let worms work! Just put in the organic kitchen and garden waste. The worms, bacteria and fungi turn it to fertile soil. 35
BIN FOR ORGANIC KITCHEN WASTE 36
5. Paper Recycling Paper is produced from plant material by breaking down the fibre to produce pulp. This pulp, which is mostly derived from woodchips, is bleached using chlorine, and mixed with water. After the water is removed a matted sheet of paper remains. The pulping process uses huge amounts of energy and the bleaching stage produces dioxin, which is one of the most toxic chemicals on earth. Present situation in Qatar We recycle virtually none of this paper, which is significantly less than other countries such as Japan, which recycle over 50% of their overall paper. In Qatar we need to import all of our paper to satisfy our growing demand. In Qatar tonnes of paper is dumped each year. This is the equivalent of millions of trees. All this paper occupies large areas of landfill and is becoming a waste management nightmare. Since the introduction of the photocopier and computer, the demand for paper has increased dramatically. This is contrary to what we expected when the technological revolution began, and the so-called paperless schoolroom was being promoted. Over 70% of all school waste is paper. In fact, Qatar schools produce thousands of tonnes of paper waste each year. 37
Unfortunately presently very little is recycled. The irony is that there is a strong international market for quality waste paper, with high prices being paid for used computer and photocopy paper. Some suggestions for decreasing our paper demand would be: By recycling paper over 40% of the energy used to pulp raw materials can be saved. In fact, by not recycling your daily newspaper you are wasting the equivalent energy of one cup of petrol. Paper recyclers are keen to collect as much high-grade quality paper as possible. to use both sides of paper; reuse scrap paper for note taking and recycle all paper once its been used. This paper must be of a similar grade, clean and uncontaminated by plastic, wire, or other matter. Generally most paper collected is recycled into paperboard, although the high quality paper is used to produce printing and writing paper. 38
Avoid recycling the following types of paper: Like all recyclable products, paper must be sorted and not be contaminated. These contaminants may vary but by using the following guidelines most problems can be avoided. Recycle the following types of paper: writing and photocopy paper bond stock (all forms) notepaper white envelopes binder dividers index cards or sheets plain manilla folders computer printouts cards reports writing pads and scribblers telephone directories newspapers. carbon paper gummed labels sweet wrappers facial tissues waxed paper cigarette packets paper cups and plates paper towels lunch bags windowed envelopes milk or drink cartons Paper clips and staples need not be removed as these will settle in the pulping stage of recycling the paper. Paper packaging can also be recycled, as long as there is no plastic coating or other contamination such as grease or food residues present. Cardboard boxes are recyclable, but need to be flattened and sorted from other types of paper waste. The increased use of plastics and waxed coatings on many types of packaging is a major obstacle for paper recycling, as these products contaminate the paper and make it worthless. 39
The collected cardboard is pressed in Qatar and sold overseas for recycling 40
Some paper collected for recycling (usually low-grade paper such as cardboard and newsprint) is in high demand in other Gulf States such as the United Arab Emirates. Because householders do not produce sufficient amounts of waste paper, they generally do not receive any payment for their recyclable paper, however, some environmental groups are able to centrally collect and sell household paper for a profit to paper recyclers. However, it is the school and office paper and cardboard packaging that is mostly sought by the recycling industry, and they are willing to pay big money for it. For more information on the collection of paper see chapter three How to Get Started. At present no Qatar newspaper uses recycled paper, despite a saving of up to 60% in energy being possible by doing so. The production of newspaper from virgin material requires mechanical pulping which uses lots of energy. The same newspaper made from waste paper does not require as much pulping and therefore saves energy. Because of its low grade, it is important to keep newspaper separated from higher grades of paper, as this increases the value of the higher grades and makes recycling simpler. There are currently several new recycled paper products on the market. By supporting these you will help to generate a greater demand for recycled paper and the price for all these products will decrease. In addition, by supporting these recycled products you will be helping to conserve our natural resources and reduce pollution locally and globally. - + 41
* How far can you reduce your paper consumption in school? How far can you reuse the paper you need for school? What kind of paper can you recycle? 42
6. Recycling Glass Glass is one of our oldest manufactured products and consists primarily of sand, soda ash and limestone, which is melted in a very hot furnace to produce the vast array of glass products that we now use everyday. Glass has excellent potential for being recycled: In fact a glass bottle could be recycled forever. By recycling glass we can save over one third of the energy required to produce glass from raw materials. Collected used glass is crushed and this is called cullet. Every tonne of this cullet saves over 135 litres of oil and replaces 1.2 tonnes of raw materials. There are other benefits for industry, such as a reduction in stack emissions by 40% and increased furnace life due to the lower heat required to melt cullet. One of the major benefits is that recycled glass is of higher quality than glass made from raw materials. Despite these benefits only 25% of glass is currently recycled globally. Overall glass waste makes up about 6% of Qatar rubbish, with each of us discarding over 33 kg per year. For example, the amount of sand that went into the making of all this discarded glass could fill a beach to a length of 1 kilometre and to a depth of 1 metre. Every year in Qatar tonnes of glass is dumped, containing enough sand to produce millions of drink bottles. This occurs mostly because, unlike some other countries Qatar presently has few incentives to return empty bottles. Glass recycling using crushed cullet began in the nineteen sixties and was achieving good results until the introduction of large residential big bins or mobile bins in the early nineteen eighties. These big bins enabled people to throw out everything, including recyclable goods such as glass bottles & jars. 43
At one time many glass products were reusable - most milk bottles were filled over 27 times, but now the only bottles that can be refilled are some home delivered soft drink and beverage bottles. Some cities still use milk bottles, but the increased use of both cardboard and plastic containers has virtually made milk bottles obsolete. This is unfortunate because reusable bottles are over 30% more energy efficient than disposable ones. Perhaps a similar system to return drink containers in Qatar would be a good idea? Some Gulf States, are considering introducing a compulsory deposit system where all beverage containers sold must be returned for refilling. This system places an extra charge on the product at the point of sale, which is refunded when the container is returned. This system has successfully been adopted in Australia, and as a result, there is a 90-95% recovery rate on cans and bottles. The Australians also found that the return system provided an additional 1500 jobs reduced litter by up to 90% and conserved energy and raw materials. 44
Glass Recycling Guide For maximurn efficiency, glass must be sorted into colours for recycling. The main colours are brown, clear and green. In addition, you must distinguish between returnable bottles and recyclable glass to be melted. Rinse out all recyclable glass and remove the lids from bottles and jars. It is not necessary to remove the labels from bottles and jars as these are removed whilst being recycled. All glass can be recycled, including broken glass and medicine bottles. Glass Collection Scheme Glass manufactures are willing to pay for waste glass but the amount varies depending on the type of glass, and of course on how far you live from the glass factory. In other countries most industrial recyclers will pick up glass from your home or school. These industries offer door to door collections, and other collections are also made by municipalities during general clean-ups. In some cities municipalities offer a bottle collection at the same time as the garbage pick up. In addition to this bottle drop-off facilities at petrol stations and in shopping centre car parks provide convienient collection points for community groups and charities, with the proceedings from the sale of the glass going to the local charity. 45
REFILLING PROCESS OF JUICE BOTTLES 1 BOXES WITH EMPTY BOTTLES ARE DELIVERED FOR YOUR DELIGHT THE BOTTLES ARE FILLED WITH MIXED FRUIT JUICE 5 2 THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY. FIRST: TO BE OPENED FINALLY THEY ARE CLOSED... 6 3 NEXT: TO BE WASHED IN THE BOTTLE WASHER VOLUME: 6000 BOTTLES CLEANING PROCESS: 20 MINUTES... AND LABELLED 7 4 AND FOR HEALTH REASONS TO BE STERILISED BY STEAM AND UNDERGO A LAST QUALITY CONTROL 8 46
7. Metal recycling Steel Recycling: World steel production uses considerable amounts of energy in the form of oil, gas, coal and electricity. Metal wastes make up over 4% of house-hold garbage. We produce over 19 kg of metal waste each per year. The waste is mainly made up of steel used to make food containers and aluminium used to hold soft drinks. Qatar residents dump thousands of tonnes of metal waste each year and that is enough metal to make thousands of new cars. The energy used every year to produce steel is equivalent to the entire energy available from all the oil & gas produced in Qatar each year. By using scrap steel instead of raw materials, up to two thirds less energy is consumed. Industry realises the savings possible and recycles much of its waste steel, although large amounts of steel are still dumped by householders. 47
cars before and after being crushed and separated into recycable steel parts by the machine you can see in the background 48
Every year in the world billions of steel cans are produced, on average that is 390 cans per person which laid end to end, would go around the earth ten times. Unfortunately most of the billions of cans produced each year are dumped. These cans also contain valuable tin, with every tonne of cans containing up to 4 kg of tin coating. In order to recycle steel cans, they must be clean and de-labeled. This is easily achieved by washing the cans at the same time as the dishes. In most countries steel cans are not purchased by recyclers, simply because the quantities produced locally are not sufficient to make pick ups economically efficient. However, most steel industries will recycle these cans as long as they are clean and de-labelled. If large quantities are collected there may be some small payment made, but as most householders have cans in small amounts, payment is rare. 49
Aluminium Recycling: Over the last few years the recovery rate for steel cans has been increasing. This is due to the local and international demand for steel scrap and due to the increased cost of producing steel from raw materials. For more detail on steel recycling see chapter nine Recycling Other Materials. The first aluminium cans were introduced in the nineteen sixties. In the nineteen eighties the average person in Qatar used around 4 kg of aluminium per year for packaging, with 90% of this being used for beverage cans. Each of us now uses over 189 aluminium cans per year. By the late nineteen eighties billions of tonnes of aluminium cans were being recycled annually around the world. This was around 56% of all cans produced in any year and resulted in payouts of millions of dollars to the public (schools & charities). 50
By recycling an aluminium can, up to 95% of the energy required to produce that can from raw bauxite can be saved. For example, the amount of energy to smelt one tonne of bauxite could be used to melt down 20 tonnes of used aluminium cans. It takes 45 used cans to produce 38 recycled cans and it takes 54 cans to produce 1 kg of aluminium. The price of aluminium varies, with around one Riyal being paid per kilo. In addition to cans, aluminium foil and bottle and jar lids are also recyclable. For efficiency ensure that cans are crushed for easy storage and other aluminium packaging does not have any contamination, such as food residues, sticking to it. Your aluminium can recycling project A great way to raise money for your school or local club would be to set up an aluminium can recycling project. You will need to have specially marked bins for cans only and form a committee who regularly oversees the emptying of the bins and the crushing of the cans for latter transport to the recycling centres. If possible a manual can crusher could be attached to the collecting bin. These can crushers can be easily manufactured in a steel workshop and consist primarily of a steel pipe chamber in which each empty can is placed, and have a long handled lever that lowers a round steel plug on to the can. There should be no trouble finding a collection centre for your collected aluminium. Most community groups such as the Environment Friends Centre have collecting points, and in addition some companies in the industrial area accept aluminium trash. The advantage with having the can crusher attached to the bin is that it saves the committee having to crush each can after collection, and allows more cans to fit into the collecting bin. An added advantage is that everybody has the fun of crushing their own cans! 51
* Why not try to undertake an aluminium can recycling project at your school? Form a committee of interested students and teachers, make sure to involve the others by telling them about the do s and don ts of recycling aluminium, don t forget to get the cleaning staff involved. Make sure that any money made by the sale of the aluminium goes to the wider student body. This will encourage all the students in the school to participate. pressed aluminium cans for recycling 52
8. Plastic Recycling Plastic was first used in the eighteen sixties as a substitute for ivory and was made from plant material similar to paper. There are now over 60 synthetic types of plastic and these are made from oil, natural gas, coal and salt. Each Qatari resident consumes up to 93 kg of plastic each year, which is mostly in the form of packaging and throw-away containers. Over 17 % of household garbage is plastic with packaging accounting for most of the overall plastic disposed of each year. In fact, people in Qatar are among the biggest consumers of packaging material in the World. We discard millions of disposable containers annually, and over 70% of these are short-term throw-away packages such as bags and fast food containers. This waste will continue as long as packaging costs do not reflect the real costs of disposal, or of replacing the materials from which the packaging is made. For example, a leading supermarket distributes millions of plastic shopping bags every week, and each one of us collects over 350 of these plastic bags per year. At best only around 3% of all plastics manufactured are currently recycled. Most plastic recycling at present is undertaken by industry using their own off cuts and waste. Over 50% of soft drinks are now packaged in plastic bottles known as PET. PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate and these are the familiar black bottomed and studded bottom plastic drink bottles. These bottles are widely collected and recycled into industrial resin for fibreglass, strapping tape and carpet backing. Possible other uses include filling for cold weather clothing and additives to plastic paints. In other countries around 10% of all bottles made are currently recycled. PLASTIC IS MADE FROM: OIL NATURAL GAS COAL SALT PET: POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTALATE 53