What we can learn from scavengers

It's interesting how popular culture works, with works of a particular theme seeming to cluster together. Or perhaps the clustering is in the mind of the viewer only - having seen one piece of work, another similar piece is filtered from the noise for special attention.

This happened to me where, within the space of a couple of months, I saw the trailer for an upcoming documentary called Landfill Harmonic, and watched a full documentary called Waste Land. They seemed to stumble into my consciousness.

What will the IT revolution look like when it hits waste?

I often wonder about different perspectives on something I'm looking at.

One perspective that has been bugging me lately is the IT revolution and how it might affect waste. Specifically, the sort of hyper-innovation that has ripped computing from the basement and lab coats into smartphones and cloud computing in the space of 50 years.

This is not a question of how computing per se is affecting waste. Of course, there are some interesting things going on with data management and so on, but it is fundamentally a business built on people circling big and expensive plant: lab coats circling big, expensive machines. Computing has not changed this, and isn't really what is bugging at me.

What bugs me is how and when waste will make the shift from mega-machines to become personalised. When will it become something that we can all find out self-expression through? It is the shift in attitude that interests me.

It sounds absurd to even propose that something like waste could ever become personalised, ever be a medium for self-expression. Just as a basement full of wires and punch cards and blinking lights could never be the genesis of an awesome flowering of personality. But it is, and so too waste might not only be disrupted forever, but might even disrupt everything forever.

How? Imagine first a series of business models that permit the citizen to easily take control of his or her waste for financial reward. The resource value within the waste drives this new perspective, and you start to see the sort of massive reverse logistics that so characterises scrap steel. You start to see a self-reinforcing loop, not needing capitalism to be overthrown for it to make sense.

Imagine this then driven by high-tech. You can imagine little bins that don't just store your rubbish, but deconstruct it for sale of the components, pocket sized units that deconstruct your rubbish when you're on the go. Tiny micro-factories at every street corner replacing the vending machine, taking materials in from people walking by and using them to make your next purchase as you wait, bleeping out little calls to people who have the stuff they need. Credits automatically credited for this, the end of bulk logistics, the ushering in of personalised consumption.

But it doesn't need high-tech, and it certainly doesn't need this high-tech, for the disruption. All it needs is a disruptive business model to start us down the path. That little disruption, that upstart, will set us on the path to changing everything. Just like the clunky mini-computer led us to the PC to the smartphone and cloud computing.

I wonder about this stuff. I'm not so egotistical to think I need to make it happen, but I can't help feeling it is about to happen and now is the perfect time to be involved. I am sufficiently egotistical to think I can be part of the happening.

The lessons from scrap steel recycling

In yesterday's blog Scrap steel - the greatest recycling story ever?, I pointed out how significant scrap steel is as a recycling sector. The sheer size of scrap steel recycling through the Electric Arc Furnace obviously diverts large quantities of material from landfill, but it also saves immense quantities of energy and thus greenhouse gases.

Electric Arc Furnace, image courtesy of Made in China

 This is all good, but more interesting is what lessons can be learned. My view on why scrap steel is so heavily recycled is:

Steel is integral to industrial societies

Steel is used in so many applications, from consumer uses like cars, through to heavy duty industrial application such as reinforcing for concrete. Indeed, it is so pervasive that it could be said to define the current era. All of this means that there are a great many buyers each looking to use it in any number of applications. The market drives this.

Translating to other materials, it is vital to let markets drive recycling, a point I return to over and over. Recycling without a market is just another form of waste disposal. Markets thrive where there is competition, and so developing a myriad of uses for the materials within waste will encourage its recycling.

Steel from scrap is high quality and uses less energy to make than from iron ore

It always helps if product generated from recycled material is of high quality. It especially helps if there are energy savings (though these tend to net out through pricing of scrap steel when compared with other raw materials such as iron ore). 

Sometimes these attributes are inherent in the product. Steel, aluminium and glass all recycle into high quality products using less energy. Sometimes it is a decision made by the recycler. In deciding how to sort for materials, the quality of the end product is determined. Failing to remove steel (ie nails) from timber recycling plants means that the chip cannot be used for particle board manufacture.

Steel is a cornerstone of the American economy

The point here is similar but different to my first. Being linked into the dynamic, innovative American economy means that there will always be a seething mass of engineers and entrepreneurs looking to do better. This is one of the great features of the American culture, and why America recycles more than 80% of its steel, far better than any other economy.

Other materials have a great prospect if they too can hitch their wagon to a culture of innovation. You can imagine, for instance, palladium's use in electronics driving all sorts of recovery innovation. This will be the subject of a future blog.

Steel is easily extracted

Being magnetic, it is easy to remove steel. Similar processes can and are being invented for other products, but here is where materials processing engineers with some lateral thinking could be game changers. We need to support this, encourage it, drive it.

Steel is dense and easily transported

There is a lot of cost in moving space around. If you can get a lot of weight into that space, then you are increasing the transport efficiency. Less dense materials can be made more dense through compactors, and this must be (and is) a first step for any recycling operations.

Waste paper baler, photo courtesy of Alibaba

Steel is high value

Leaving perhaps the most important to last - steel has a value that is high and preserved as it moves through the economy. This enables a vast web of collectors consolidating to larger and larger entities, all profitable in their own right. The ecosystem thus created is vital. Container deposit schemes seek to create the same system of cascading value through legislation. Not as good as a natural market, but sometimes these sorts of steps are needed. Any long term recycling and upcycling venture must be financially worthwhile for all participants.

So my thoughts. I'd be keen for comments on how the success of scrap steel can be, and is being, translated to other materials.