00:00 Rubbish
on London Streets
Guide Voice: Modern
industrial societies generate a lot of waste - the UK alone
produces more than a million tonnes every day.
00:12 Landfill
Site (Carmarthen, Wales)
Earth
Movers on Landfill Site - various shots
Guide Voice: A large
proportion of this waste has traditionally been put into
"landfill" - literally dumped into large holes in the
land. But many countries are running out of disposal space and the
damage to the environment from landfill sites is of increasing
concern.
Scientists at Cardiff University's Centre of
Excellence in Waste Research, an initiative backed by the Welsh
Assembly Government, are drawing on expertise from a range of
disciplines to find new solutions to waste management.
00:36 SOT: Professor Hywel Thomas,
Director, Centre of Excellence for Waste Research, Cardiff
University - "Currently, at Cardiff University,
we carry out research on waste related issues across the broad
range of activities we look at it from the economics point of view
we look at it from the social point of view, we look at it from the
environmental and engineering point of view and the objective of
the centre is to pull those activities more closely together; to
provide an integrated unified approach to the whole issue of waste
management and waste practices."
01:13 Compost
Pile at Cardiff University Compost Research Centre (Under
Canopy)
c.u.
Vent Pipe
c.u.
Data logging device - pull out to reveal researcher logging
readings.
Guide Voice: Among these
solutions Engineers are using the latest technology to update a
time-honoured practice. They are collecting data from large-scale
experiments in composting, taking and analysing constant readings
of temperature, gas flows, and gas composition.
Predictions indicate that municipal waste,
the main contributor to landfill, is set to rise by just under 3%
per year. Such growth would more than double the amount of landfill
gas generated in the next 20 years, a very high portion of which is
methane, one of the most aggressive green house gases.
01:49 SOT: Professor Thomas
- "If you look at the way our society has
developed, say over the last 100 years or so, then you can see
that, many of the practices we've embarked on were not sustainable
practices and that if you couple that with the growth in our
society and couple that with the population growth as well and see
the impacts of what society in the past - what man made activities
- the impact that that's had on the environment, then it's a
recognition that we need to change those practices or the continued
impact on the environment will be too negative."
02:32 Tractor
loading Green Waste into Shredder/Mixer
Mulch
emerging from Shredder/Mixer
Tagged
compost pile
Hand
sifting resulting compost
Throughout Europe, EU Directives and
Government legislation mean that stringent targets to recycle and
compost, must be met to divert bio-degradable materials from
landfill. Cardiff's research scientists are finding that, by more
actively managing the composting process, they can considerably
speed up the breakdown of organic material enabling them to achieve
in 8 weeks a quality of compost that would take a year under
traditional methods - ensuring that millions of tonnes of domestic
waste become a valuable resource rather than a continuing
problem.
03:14 End
of cut item
Additional Material
Tilt down from sky to blockhouse (Cardiff
University Compost Research Building)
Sign on building
Sign at entrance to site (Carmarthen Environmental Resources
Trust)
Pan across green fields and countryside
2 Shots showing expansion of landfill site
04:15 End
