Women's Views on News |
- Pads to be recycled or composted at last
- Looking at household debt
- Report on cyber violence against women and girls
| Pads to be recycled or composted at last Posted: 14 Oct 2015 05:53 AM PDT
Feminine hygiene products, disposable nappies and incontinent pads and will have a new life as plastic bins and pet litter thanks to a new recycling facility planned for West London. Development plans for the UK's largest Absorbent Hygiene Product (AHP) recycling site in Hayes have been submitted by Knowaste – an American recycling firm which aims to build seven such facilities in different parts of the UK within the next five years. AHPs – primarily nappies – remain a sticking point for the transition to a more circular economy. A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy of make, use, dispose, in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. The UK throws away almost more than a million tonnes of nappies each year – accounting for 4-7 per cent of black bin waste – all of which goes to landfill. The £14m Hayes 180 site will take in more than 36,000 tonnes of AHP waste each year, which is to be recycled into useful plastics and fibres. The site’s launch is planned for early 2017. Local authorities and commercial hygiene companies will be charged a set fee to use the facility, and replace the existing mandatory landfill or incineration costs associated with AHPs. Bagged AHPs are shredded, separated and then sterilised using advanced thermal treatment technology before being sorted to remove any contaminants. The resulting plastics continue through a granulation and multi washing stage, before being pelletised, bagged and sent off-site for re-use. The fibres are washed, dried and processed for use as a pet litter which is bagged for immediate distribution to the retail sector. Knowaste has already built strategic partnerships with a distributor of pet litter and a manufacturer of plastic bins, with a company spokesperson telling news site edie it is currently "in discussion with local authorities in and commercial partners in the area". If approved, Hayes 180 would be the biggest plant of its kind in the UK. It follows a successful pilot in the West Midlands, built in 2011, which tested the technology and evaluated the market opportunities for recyclables created from this kind of process. Knowaste's UK business development director Paul Richardson said: "We are able to recycle over 97 per cent of the AHP product with our unique and exciting technology. "Our AHP recycling process is considered to be the most sustainable solution to managing this specific waste, saving up to 70 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions when compared to the usual disposal methods of landfill and incineration." At the end of 2013, another innovative solution to the problem – Envirocomp – launched in Rochester, with a facility that uses a low-energy composting system to convert nappy, sanitary and incontinence waste into compost which can be used for non-food agriculture, land reclamation and leisure areas. Envirocomp has been running in New Zealand since 2009. Karen and Karl Upston, New Zealand parents of two, developed the process in collaboration with HotRot Organic Solutions using existing HotRot patented technology. The Upstons had owned a business selling both disposable and cloth nappies. With two children themselves, they were aware of and felt guilty about how many nappies they were contributing to landfill, but as busy parents found the convenience of disposable nappies very attractive. They decided to trial composting disposable nappies on a commercial scale, and contacted HotRot Organic Solutions (NZ) Ltd, manufacturers of the HotRot range of in-vessel composting systems, for advice and guidance. To their great delight, HotRot Organic Solutions (NZ) Ltd prototype composting unit was currently being stored in Auckland and they were offered the use of this technology for the trial. The five month trial involved over 200 families, six pre-schools, the local maternity hospital, elderly residents and a Christchurch Branch of the IHC. Over the five months approximately 450,000 nappies were composted, which equated to 56 tonnes. Based on the 2007 completed trial, the demand for this service exceeded all expectations and clearly identified a need for a commercial composting facility. A custom-built composting facility was designed and went fully operational in North Canterbury, New Zealand. The business was then acquired in 2011 by OCS, an international facilities services group, whose subsidiary, Cannon Hygiene, is a leader in the provision of sustainable washroom solutions to companies worldwide. Nappies and other AHP waste are processed with green waste through a HotRot composting unit. AHP and green waste enter one end and move down the vessel as part of a continuous process. This is of a duration and temperature that ensures pathogens are eliminated and that the full composting process is complete. The compost is then put through a screening process to remove all materials (mainly plastics) that cannot be composted. The final compost is tested by quality control before being ready for use. The final compost is free from pathogens. It can be used for non-food agriculture, leisure areas and other general composted areas. The plastic waste is currently sent to waste-to-energy plants, but research is being commissioned to look at recycling options. The plant in Canterbury, New Zealand, processes 15,000 nappies per day – or over 5 million per year. As the operation in the UK grows, it will be able to divert an ever-increasing number from landfill. While it would be better for the environment for people to use washable, reusable nappies, the fact is that 95 per cent of the nappies used in the UK are disposable. The aim is to reduce the landfill they cause in an environmentally friendly way. Following its first year of operation Envirocomp's plant in Rochester, UK has composted 4.6 million nappies. Equating to approximately 700 tonnes, these nappies, which would normally have gone to landfill and left to degenerate, are now being used for land restoration. It is estimated that disposable nappies can take from 250 to 500 years to decompose, so the ability to divert nappies from landfill is good for the environment and good for future generations. Something to be happy about!  |
| Posted: 14 Oct 2015 05:29 AM PDT
by Damon Gibbons and Lovedeep Vaid, of the Centre for Responsible Credit for the TUC and UNISON. It is seven years since the onset of the global financial crisis and the 'Great Recession'. Although the credit boom prior to 2007/08 has been identified by the Bank of England as a contributory factor in causing the crisis, and the Bank has recently reported that the legacy of high household indebtedness has held back the recovery, very little has been done in that time to directly assist British households to either pay down or restructure their debts. This is now a major concern because a number of factors have combined to increase the household debt burden in recent years. These include a lengthy fall in real wages; a rise in 'underemployment' (i.e. people who would like more hours of work but cannot obtain them); record numbers of people in low paying self-employment, and a continuing programme of severe cuts to state support for working age households. For many low paid workers, the increased 'casualisation' of employment, typified by the rise in zero hours contracts, also causes cash flow problems which in turn drives increased, often high cost, credit use or arrears on household bills. It is therefore of little surprise that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is forecasting that household indebtedness will increase further over the lifetime of the current parliament. The household debt to gross household disposable income ratio is expected to rise by 26 percentage points to 170 percent by 2020. This is slightly higher than the debt to income ratio witnessed just ahead of the crisis in 2007/08. We are concerned about this prospect both because of the damaging effects of debt problems on those who are directly affected and also because an increase in the household debt burden is likely to limit domestic demand, act as a drag on Britain's economic growth, and increase the vulnerability of the economy to external shocks. It is important to look at the different components of household indebtedness that are included within the OBR's forecast. Approximately 80 per cent of total household liabilities is secured on property in the form of mortgages. The OBR expects rising house prices to feed through into an overall increase in household indebtedness, and that this will account for around 12 percentage points of the forecast increase in the debt to gross income ratio through to 2020. There has already been a great deal written concerning the possible implications of our high level of mortgage debt, especially if interest rates are raised by the Bank of England. For example: In May 2014, the Resolution Foundation modelled the impact of likely interest rate increases and reported that if rates were to rise to just 2.9 percent by the end of 2018 then around 2.3 million households could find their mortgages unaffordable; and Writing in the Bank of England's Quarterly Bulletin, Bunn & Rostom (2014) reported that the potential for household indebtedness to have 'a large adverse impact on aggregate demand and on the banking system' lay behind the Bank's Financial Policy Committee decision in July 2014 to introduce tighter restrictions on mortgage lending. These included the introduction of 'interest rate stress testing' as part of affordability assessment processes for new loans and limits on the proportion of mortgages being offered at loan to income multiples of 4.5 or above. In contrast, the economic impact of the remaining 20 per cent of household indebtedness, which comprises their unsecured liabilities (both consumer credit debts and student loans), has been largely overlooked. For example, Bunn and Rostom's research, which looked at the negative impact of household indebtedness on domestic demand, focused exclusively on the role played by mortgage debt. Yet the stock of outstanding unsecured debt is large and the OBR is expecting this to grow further. In its July 2015 forecast the OBR indicated that it expected increased unsecured debt to account for 14 percentage points (i.e. more than half) of the expected rise in the overall debt to gross income ratio through to 2020. The 'Britain in the Red' project is therefore focused on the growing unsecured debt burden of British households. It is examining the evidence from recent household surveys and aggregate datasets to determine the extent to which unsecured debts make households financially vulnerable; how the debt burden is distributed between different types of households, and the wider economic consequences of the long-term accumulation of unsecured debt that has taken place. This preliminary report sets out the findings from the analysis of household survey data concerning recent trends in financial vulnerability and over-indebtedness and a future final report will consider how these relate to aggregate datasets and the wider economic impacts of the household debt burden. It will also make recommendations for change. It should be noted that throughout this report we use the term 'unsecured liabilities' to refer to the combined total of consumer credit and student loan debt, and 'consumer debt' to refer to the unsecured liabilities of households excluding student loans. The remainder of this report is structured as follows: Chapter two presents an analysis of household debt survey evidence and comments on observed changes in the distribution of unsecured debt in recent years. In this respect we particularly focus on findings from an analysis of the Bank of England's annual household debt survey commissioned from NMG Consulting ('the NMG survey'); Chapter three then provides further detail from the NMG survey to present findings about the demographic of characteristics of households with the highest unsecured debt burdens; and Chapter four provides our preliminary conclusions. Among these are: Policy makers have paid insufficient attention to the unsecured debt liabilities of households in recent years; Whilst mortgage debt constitutes by far the greatest part of household debt, and therefore poses a greater threat to financial stability, just under half of all households have unsecured liabilities; The household unsecured debt to income ratio has been impacted by a strong rise in the amount of student debt in recent years; The repayment of consumer debt is causing a considerable problem for an increasing number of households; The consumer debt burden varies according to the demographic characteristics of households; It is clear that over-indebtedness is a growing problem; Income growth has certainly been low, and Government has directly contributed to this by restraining public sector pay; and What is clear is that any further increase in the cost of credit, as is likely if base rates rise, will undoubtedly result in an increase in over-indebtedness unless this is offset by an increase in real incomes. To download the full provisional report click here. A version of this article appeared on the TUC’s website in September 2015.  |
| Report on cyber violence against women and girls Posted: 14 Oct 2015 03:50 AM PDT
A new report released recently by the United Nations Broadband Commission revealed that almost three quarters of women online have been exposed to some form of cyber violence. Its authors urge governments and industry to work harder and more effectively together to better protect the growing number of women and girls who are victims of online threats and harassment. The report notes that despite the rapidly growing number of women experiencing online violence, only 26 per cent of law enforcement agencies in the 86 countries surveyed are taking appropriate action. Entitled ‘Cyber Violence Against Women & Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call’, the report was released at an event at United Nations Headquarters in New York by the Commission's Working Group on Gender. It is co-chaired by the UNDP‘s administrator, Helen Clark, and the UN’s Under-Secretary-General and UN Women's executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Working Group members, which also include representatives from the tech sector and civil society, hope the report will mobilise the public and private sectors to establish concrete strategies aimed at stemming the rising tide of online violence against women. Without concerted global action to curb the various escalating forms of online violence, an unprecedented surge of 'cyber violence against women and girls (cyber VAWG)' could run rampant and significantly impede the uptake of broadband by women everywhere, the report contends. It notes that cyber VAWG already exists in many forms, including online harassment, public shaming, the desire to inflict physical harm, sexual assaults, murders and induced suicides. The rapid spread of the internet means that effective legal and social controls of online anti-social and criminal behaviours continue to be an immense challenge. And in the age of the social internet and 'anywhere, anytime' mobile access, cyber violence can strike at any time, and can relentlessly follow its targets everywhere they go. "In this report we're arguing that complacency and failure to address and solve cyber violence could significantly impede the uptake of broadband services by girls and women worldwide," said the ITU‘s secretary-general Houlin Zhao, who serves as co-vice chair of the Broadband Commission alongside UNESCO‘s director-general Irina Bokova. "The Net is an amazing resource for personal empowerment, and we need to ensure that as many girls and women as possible benefit from the amazing possibilities it offers." Key findings of the report include: An estimated 73 per cent of women have already been exposed to, or have experienced, some form of online violence. Women in the age range of 18 to 24 are uniquely likely to experience stalking and sexual harassment in addition to physical threats. Nine million women in the European Union's 28 countries alone have experienced online violence as young as 15 years old. One in five female Internet users live in countries where harassment and abuse of women online is extremely unlikely to be punished. In many countries women are reluctant to report their victimisation for fear of social repercussions. Cyber VAWG puts a premium on emotional bandwidth, personal and workplace time, financial resources and missed wages. "Violence against women and girls is never acceptable anywhere, no matter whether it is committed on the streets, in the home, or on the information highway," Helen Clark said. "To achieve sustainable development for all, we must build a world where women and girls can live their lives free of violence and fulfil their potential as valued and equal members of society." Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "Online violence has subverted the original positive promise of the internet's freedoms and in too many circumstances has made it a chilling space that permits anonymous cruelty and facilitates harmful acts towards women and girls. "We want to reclaim and expand the opportunities it offers" she continued. "That means recognizing the scale and depth of the damage being done – and taking strong, concerted steps to call it – and stop it. "Abuse online is still abuse, with potency and very real consequences." The report presents a set of Key Recommendations, proposing a global framework based around three Ss – Sensitisation, Safeguards and Sanctions. Sensitisation – Preventing cyber VAWG through training, learning, campaigning and community development to promote changes in in social attitudes and behaviour; Safeguards – Implementing oversight and maintaining a responsible Internet infrastructure through technical solutions and more informed customer care practices; and Sanctions – Develop and uphold laws, regulations and governance mechanisms to deter perpetrators from committing these acts. The report argues that rigorous oversight and enforcement of rules banning cyber VAWG on the internet will be an essential foundation stone if the internet is to become a safe, respectful and empowering space for women and girls, and, by extension, for boys and men.  |
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