WASTE PREVENTION TOOLKIT

Measuring the Impact of Household Waste

Prevention Initiatives

Emma How

Eunomia Research & Consulting

19th March 2015

“The objects flying

through the air would take

40 hours to clean, except

that no housewife need

bother. They are all meant

to be thrown away after

use.”

LIFE Magazine, 1955

“One barrier identified by local authorities

is the difficulty making the case for waste

prevention to prioritise spending because

of a lack of data”

Defra, Consultation on the Waste Prevention

Programme for England, August 2013

What is the Waste Prevention Toolkit?

• Started out as Waste Avoidance Toolkit for Welsh local authorities

• Modified for use across the UK as Waste Prevention Toolkit

• Available free to all Local Authorities.

• Easy to use Excel Based Model.

• A way to systematically assess the financial and environmental impact of 10 preloaded waste prevention initiatives and 3 “other” initiatives.

• Backed up by 54 case studies - mainly from across the UK with some from Europe

How Does it Work?

• There are three core areas to the Waste

Prevention Toolkit:

• Set –Up:

• Baseline inputs.

• Cost assumptions.

• Choose Initiatives and define inputs:

• Choose initiatives.

• Individual initiative tabs.

• Results/Outputs:

• Tables and Charts.

Set-Up

• Baseline inputs:

• Current and planned waste treatment options

• Recycling rate

• Projected waste arisings and population

• Cost assumptions

• Labour costs

• Gate fee data

• Material prices

Set-Up – Baseline inputs

Choose Initiative(s)

• Choose from 10 individual initiatives

Waste Prevention

Reuse

Recycling

Recovery

Disposal

Scope of

initiatives included

within the model

Scope of

environmental

and financial

impacts

1. Home Composting

2. No Junk Mail

3. Love Food Hate Waste

4. Promotion of Reusable Nappies

6. Zero Waste Challenge

5. Paint Reuse

7. Community Swap Days

8. Reduced Residual Waste Containers

9. No Side Waste Policy

10. General Communications

Choose Initiatives & Define Inputs

• Choose your initiatives

• Input data into individual initiative tabs

Results & Outputs

• Tonnes of Waste Avoided

• Annual Implementation costs

• Financial Impacts (£)

• Carbon avoided – tonnes of CO2 eq and

number of cars taken off the road

• Impact on recycling rates.

Results & Outputs

• Tables & Charts

Toolkit Constraints

• Usability vs complexity

• Finding comparable case studies

• Social benefits not included

• Reuse of bulky waste not yet included

How Can the Toolkit Help Local

Authorities?

• Provides an evidence base backed up by

case studies.

• Saves time and money in research and

planning costs.

• Enables the strategic planning over a five

year period.

• Includes ongoing tech support and

updates.

You may not have to

wash the dishes, but

somebody has to

clean up after you!

LIFE

1955

Download the Toolkit

• Request a free version of the tool at:

www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/waste-

prevention-toolkit/

Thank You

Emma How

0117 9172 281

emma.how@eunomia.co.uk

www.eunomia.co.uk