Cafe Waste

By Eleanor Swain

Our planet is reaching breaking point, with billions of tons of greenhouse gasses billowing into our skies, landfills at bursting point, waterways polluted and our resources grossly exploited, all while population continues to rise. Something needs to be done to reduce our burden on the planet. A relatively new concept which could help reduce this burden whilst allowing continued growth is up-cycling, currently defined as “the process of converting an industrial nutrient (material) into something of similar or greater value, in its second life” (1). So, is up-cycling another buzz word du jour, or a revolution that will change not only our attitudes to waste and resources, but ultimately save our planet?

With waste generation closely linked to population, urbanisation and affluence, post consumer waste is expected increase to 1.7 billion tons of CO2 equivalent emissions by 2020 (2) (where CO2 equivalent is the total climate change impact of all greenhouse gases, expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide that would have the same impact). To put this into perspective, the total global greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 was 44 billion tons of CO2 (3). However, despite efforts to reduce the amount of waste produced (the most favoured waste solution according to the DEFRA waste hierarchy (Fig. 1)), the continued population increase means an ever-increasing generation of waste is unavoidable.

Nonetheless, there is some positive news; last year the UK saw the proportion of local authority waste entering landfill dropping below that recycled, composted or reused for the first time since records began (the second and third most favourable waste treatments). However, the rate of recycling has started to plateau, and often the process required results in down-cycled goods, in which either massive amounts of resources and energy are required to process the new material increasing the new products embedded energy, or the material quality is reduced, making them suitable for use only in lower value applications. For example, during many so-called recycling processes involved with plastics, different plastics are mixed resulting in a hybrid material that has decreased physical, mechanical and aesthetic properties. This highlights the waste hierarchy as set out by DEFRA is in need of clearer definitions of recycling (Fig. 1), as well as the introduction of down-cycling and of course up-cycling.

The popular science book ‘How Bad Are Bananas’ by Mike Berners-Lee, beautifully encapsulates the importance of calculating the embedded carbon footprint of everyday items, not merely taking emissions and energy usage as an indication of your impact on the planet. For example, less than 10g of CO2 is released producing a pint of tap water, unlike the bottled alternative which has around 1000 times the impact, which requires additional processing including purification, transportation and packaging.
“It takes 17 million barrels of oil a year to produce water bottles for the USA only, not including the energy for transportation, and it takes three times the water to make the bottle as it does to fill it”.
In addition, the global consumption of bottled water is increasing year on year, while there remains a minimal recycling of these bottles. There is an urgent need to rethink how our waste is treated, and how to define when packaging has reached the end of its useful life. Underlying these questions are a set of broader concerns, which can only be examined by positioning human attitudes to waste within certain social, cultural, and economic contexts. How for example, can we explain this rise in bottled water consumption, and to what extent will behaviour change be necessary to undermine a throwaway mind-set, and hence play a significant role in creating for us all, a more sustainable future?

There is no doubt that the waste hierarchy starts off well with reduce and reuse, however as identified, recycling really isn’t the next best step, it is simply ‘not as bad’ as landfill, and is more often more accurately labelled down-cycling. Up-cycling however fills in the gap between reuse and recycle, in which materials from used products are utilized in the the manufacturing of new products of increased value with minimal additional energy (i.e. minimal embedded energy) (Fig. 2). The concept has been welcomed by the textiles industry, in which both zero-waste patterns and zero-waste manufacture are now commonplace. In addition, companies such as Worn Again, utilise existing textiles from large companies to create new products (Fig. 3).

Researchers at Newcastle University are exploring the potential of design-led up-cycling, where products are engineered at the production stage to have a range of ‘potential’ uses during their lifetime. However, the concept of up-cycling is recognised as only successful if the general public not only recognise these new potentials in waste material, but are also motivated to do something with them too. So for example, plastic bottles, cartons, and other packaging, once regarded as worthless waste, may become more valuable if people identify these as components with a range of creative possibilities. One exciting potential is for people to take ownership of these new materials and use them in innovative ways, to create new products, and hence develop for themselves new entrepreneurial opportunities. If for example, the value of such materials increases, is there likely to be a range of new ‘grass-root’ types of business opportunities created?

What is not currently known, is the willingness of people to own a handbag made from materials once regarded as rubbish or waste, or live in a building insulated with material of a similar origin. How, and why would people of very different social, economic and cultural backgrounds choose to engage with up-cycled products, if at all? To gauge a range of possible perceptions around notions of waste, value and utility, an interdisciplinary team of academics and students from Newcastle University are constructing a Cafe made from materials described as rubbish or waste. The structure of ‘Cafe Waste’ will be cardboard and plastic, and has been designed to function as a working cafe. This is intended as a space where people of different ages, and from different neighbourhoods of Newcastle, will be invited to participate in a research dialogue with members of the project team. It is hoped that, by encouraging research participants to experience waste materials in new ways, it will be possible to explore the potential value of up-cycled products and components.

Cafe Waste will be open for business between Tuesday 16 and Thursday 18 April, and we invite students to come along and get involved. All ‘customers’ will get a free cup of coffee, but only if they bring their own disposable coffee cup. You will find Cafe Waste in the new glass reception area of Fine Arts; adjacent to The Northern Stage.

(1) Dictionary of Sustainable Management
(2) IPCC, in, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, USA. pp 996, 2007.
(3) K. Baumert, T. Herzog and J. Pershing, in, World Resources Institute Working Paper 2005, p. 132.