Best Foot Forward Blog

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The three R's

Mon 18 May 2009

The basis of a good education, so they say, is the three R’s: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. A different set of R’s also crop up in the waste management hierarchy: reduce, reuse and recycle. We were reminded last week that if we are to conserve natural resources, and decarbonise our economy, the waste hierarchy also needs to be considered in the cold light of some robust ‘rithmetic. The occasion was a scientific media briefing to debunk some of the myths surrounding recycling which was organised by WRAP, the UK’s leading waste and resources programme.

BFF Technical Director Craig had been kindly invited to sit on a three person expert panel, alongside Robin Curry (SRI Research) and Liz Goodwin (WRAP’s CEO). They faced an assembled group of around twenty journalists who were keen to learn but, perhaps, expected more of a ‘rats in bins’ storyline.

With the judicious application of ‘rithmetic, Craig debunked the following three common myths about glass recycling:
1. Transport emissions for glass must be high because cullet is so heavy
2. Transporting unwanted cullet overseas negates the benefits of recycling
3. Driving to a bottle bank is pointless as the car produces more emissions than the recycling saves

We realized that whilst these were routine calculations for BFF to perform, there is a long way to go before the media, and general public, have the necessary ‘resource literacy’ to embed this balanced thinking in everyday living.

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