Very often when thinking about action on the environment, we put things into silos: climate action, nature protection, resource & waste management, pollution of our air and water. Business in the Community’s (BITC) recent report entitled “Optimising Bioresources; Minimising Water Pollution” shows why we need to get over this mental barrier and think and act in way that takes on board all those goals. It is about “systems thinking” – the new circular economy buzzword! The report brings out why this approach is critical. Inseparable from this is the question of responsibility in a situation where the action of every business has an impact on others. The report recommends a set of principles and actions by businesses in a range of sectors in order to have real impact.
This report is the output of a collaborative value chain project where the challenges to full utilisation of biowastes – from wastewater/sewage sludge which is part of the food chain – were explored. The central problem addressed is incremental on-going pollution of wastewater. At present across the various sectors of the economy, we use a huge amount of chemicals many of which are “Forever Chemicals” – thousands of different compounds. They do not degrade in the natural environment into safe substances like water, carbon, and oxygen. Similarly, heavy metals washed into the system from vehicle braking systems, among other processes, do not degrade. The same is true of plastics, which either in the form of microplastics originating from tyres, the washing of clothing, and other things, or larger products that disintegrate into microplastics, remain in soil and water for a very long time, if not forever.
As a result, we have a problem on our hands for managing the vast quantities of wastewater produced every year – in the UK, this is 12 million tonnes a day. After treatment, this becomes essentially a liquid effluent, discharged into water bodies and sewage sludge or biosolids. All over the world these resources are applied to soils regenerating them with organic matter as well as valuable nutrients like phosphates and nitrates.
However, because of a concern about contamination, there is a push in some states and countries to prevent the application of these biowastes to the land. For example, Switzerland has now banned their use, as has Maine in the US.
Through a process of discussion in BITC’s collaborative sprint, there was increasing recognition of the flaw in a simple ban. Materials that would otherwise have value would become waste. The resources that would have been recovered will need to be replaced in some way by other soil improvers. But phosphates are a scarce resource; nitrates are produced in a carbon intensive way; and organic matter is not easy to get hold of. This will increase carbon emissions from producing those materials as well as from incinerating these natural fertilisers. In terms of the cost of living, more expensive synthetic fertilisers will be needed and discussions with the Biosolids Assurance Scheme led to the conclusion that incineration would probably more than double wastewater treatment costs.
This report suggests instead that businesses, policy-makers, and regulators work on preventing materials entering wastewater where possible, and that a hierarchy of preferred actions be applied. Innovative “green chemistry” approaches, which involve the use of biodegradable chemicals, and preventing ingress of materials using filters, such as in washing machines, are part of the solution. Additionally, those in procurement and sourcing can align their standards with reducing chemical and micro-particle pollution. For example, those purchasing tyres or renting fleets can seek better tyres that do not shed materials. These are small but obvious steps towards ensuring wastewater actually generates a resource and not waste. They are also important steps in protecting our precious water bodies from non-biodegradable chemicals and reducing, rather than increasing, carbon emissions.
Our call to action is for all businesses to identify how they may be contributing to this problem and seek to act to prevent the pollution, acting as high up the proposed hierarchy as possible, and for government and regulators to take note of these findings in their regulatory policy.
By Maya DeSouza, Circular Economy Director at Business in the Community
