Welcome to the May 2008 issue of Waste and Resource Management, part of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Readers will recall that the last issue, published in February 2008, featured papers and briefings on resource efficiency in construction. The current issue contains the more usual variety of topics in waste and resource management, although three of the five papers do return to the same theme.
The first paper, by Bjerregaard, questions whether the construction industry is doing its best to minimise and manage demolition wastes. The paper argues that the industry should build on the demolition protocol recently developed for the Institution of Civil Engineers by London Remade,1 to integrate sustainability into the design and implementation of projects. Recyclability is just one of the factors that need to be taken into account: ideally, an holistic approach combining health and safety, resource and energy efficiency and the contribution to the local economy is required. The paper by Ravetz addresses the related topic of resource flow analysis for sustainable construction. It demonstrates the use of the Resource and Energy Analysis Program (Reap) modelling and data system for an initial quantitative assessment of options such as housing replacement versus refurbishment, and the use of local versus imported materials. The increasing acceptance of the importance of considering energy in the assessment of resource management strategies, as espoused in an earlier edition of the journal,2 is very encouraging.
Simm et al. assess the recently published British Standards publicly available specification (PAS) 1083 for the production of tyre bales, with respect to the input material (tyres), and bale production and use. As the many millions of used tyres generated each year can no longer be disposed of to landfill, finding alternative uses for them is a matter of pressing importance that has been addressed, in a different way, in previous issues of Waste and Resource Management.4,5
Ahmed et al. describe the use and discuss the performance of a constructed wetland for the final stage treatment (‘polishing’) of effluent from an activated sludge process plant, under tropical and sub-tropical climatic conditions. Such an approach might see increasingly widespread adoption as we seek to deal with filter cake and sludge wastes, and manage landfills to the point where their remaining pollution potential will be released slowly enough not to damage the surrounding environment.
Finally, the paper by Parikh and Rotliwala reviews the literature relating to the catalytic decomposition of waste plastics into liquid fuels. In simple terms, the dilemma often presented by waste plastics is the choice between processing perhaps 90% of the waste stream for combustion, or as little as 10% for materials recovery.2 Although plastics have a high calorific value and may therefore represent a valuable fuel, they are generally fossil-carbon based. Their embodied energy of manufacture, which is lost on combustion, is also high. Catalytic rather than thermal decomposition into more versatile or high value fuels does not in itself provide an easy answer to this problem, but may give a useful third option in some circumstances.
I am delighted to report that the paper ‘Anaerobic digestion of verge cuttings for transport fuel’, by Salter et al., published in the August 2007 issue,6 has been awarded an ICE 2008 Telford Premium prize. Also, the paper ‘Design of a reinforced embankment on compressible soil’, by Swift and Jones, published in the November 2007 issue,7 has been awarded the John Mitchell Award. These are the first papers published in this journal to be awarded an ICE prize.
The journal's website is currently averaging over 1000 visits per month, with just under 10% of these being associated with a paid-for download of a paper. I hope that this will encourage readers to write in with a discussion point on one or more of the papers in this issue, and/or consider contributing a paper or technical note of their own. The journal will consider for publication any original contribution on research and practice relating to all civil engineering and construction aspects of the resource management cycle, from waste minimisation through the reuse and processing of waste materials to the management and disposal of residual wastes. Articles covering relevant legislation, standards, socio-economic and sustainability matters are welcomed.
