英国CEMS的MCERTS产品认证

本文对英国CEMS的MCERTS产品认证的主要内容、程序及相关要求做了简单介绍。     

Conservation policies and copper in the UK

In recent years, there have been several calls for a UK government policy towards materials. This paper takes some proposals regarding conservation, and applies them to the UK copper-using industries. The main conclusions are that consumption is likely to decline anyway over the next ten years, but government attempts to influence the trend are likely to have little real effect — or else will be very costly, in money and other terms.     

The Effectiveness of the UK Landfill Tax

This review of the UK's landfill tax generates two main contributions to our understanding of waste management in the UK. First, the review identifies areas in which the tax is least effective and considers policy implications associated with this. In particular, the tax has failed to significantly change the behaviour of domestic waste producers and SMEs. Second, it identifies continued information gaps that might be addressed. In particular, the landfill tax is intended to contribute to a transition away from landfilling of waste, towards recovery, recycling, re-use and waste minimization. This review of available evidence finds that there is reasonable data to monitor progress towards recycling, but not for re-use or waste minimization.     

The UK national obsession with energy supply

Summary

Whilst the European Union is proposing a Directive on integrated resource planning and leading cities in both Europe and America are investing in demand side measures, the UK electricity industry seems to be obsessed with building more supply capacity. Recent developments in Leicestershire emphasise this obsession with energy supply.

There is an alternative and local government should be vigorously pursuing this by both a close liaison with local utilities and by increasing public awareness of the social, economic and environmental benefits of reducing energy demand and providing energy services.     

UK metal reclamation : Prospects for improvement

Ferrous and non-ferrous metal-bearing scrap and waste arisings in the UK are discussed. Information is given on the quantities arising, their locations, the amounts recycled and the quantities of metal lost to the economy. Methods of increasing the recovery of metal values are discussed, with an indication of current R & D and possible future requirements.     

The UK national obsession with energy supply

Whilst the European Union is proposing a Directive on integrated resource planning and leading cities in both Europe and America are investing in demand side measures, the UK electricity industry seems to be obsessed with building more supply capacity. Recent developments in Leicestershire emphasise this obsession with energy supply.

There is an alternative and local government should be vigorously pursuing this by both a close liaison with local utilities and by increasing public awareness of the social, economic and environmental benefits of reducing energy demand and providing energy services.     

The economics of waste disposal in the UK

The author takes a simplified look at the structure of waste disposal costs in the UK. The immediate impression is that landfill costs are so significantly cheaper than other disposal options, on average, that considerable escalation in landfill costs, for whatever reason, would be needed to make it lose its predominance. The analysis also demonstrates that the more futuristic technologies may well have a role to play provided the initial estimates of per tonne costs are borne out by commercial ventures.     

Environment and energy resources — A UK experience

Summary Exploitation of energy resources need not imply irreperable damage to our physical environment. Unfortunately lack of involvement at the policy planning stage hinders significant improvements despite the enthusiastic but fragmented endeavours of interested parties.Evaluation of alternative strategies must keep pace with prospecting and engineering to achieve real influence upon the ultimate location, scale and form of development.Fruitful examination of policy alternatives is hindered by the competition between energy industries in the UK perpetuated by the apparent lack of a national energy strategy.The fast increasing bulk of environmental guidelines and proposed European legislation will not of itself prevent the significant environmental impact of energy exploitation.There is as yet no legislation in the United Kingdom requiring a developer to submit an environmental impact assessment with a planning application. However, many recent project proposals have been accompanied by such, either voluntarily or at the request of the local planning authority. The quality of such submissions ranges from the superficial to substantial, but few demonstrate evidence of environmental influence on policy formulation, alternative site selection or development characteristics.Recent experience in the UK has achieved significant success in the early introduction of physical planning and environmental criteria during the exploration of Western Europe's largest recoverable deep coal reserves.Environmental influence was achieved through close collaboration between client and consultants. Early discussion with local authorities and other agencies established during coal field exploration provided the basis for ongoing consultation during the four-year study period. Publication of consultants' findings and submission of planning proposals culminated in a public inquiry providing opportunity for public involvement over 84 days of project examination.David Price is an Architect and Town Planner in private practice with extensive experience in urban and regional planning and environmental evaluation in the UK and abroad. He is also a member of Land Planning Group, a multi-disciplined design and planning consultancy.     

Comparison of air quality in the UK and Russia

Summary A comparison is made of some of the key elements of ambient air quality in the UK and the Russian Federation. In each country air quality has recently moved towards the top of public environmental concerns. The legislative and regulatory framework for controlling/improving air quality is considered briefly. In the Russian Federation ambient air ground level standards exist for over 20 chemicals. In contrast, in the UK, to date, only four EEC (European Union) imposed standards are in operation. The Russian standards are considerably stricter than those of the UK, but compliance in many cities is very poor. In each country air quality has benefited more from economic recessionary forces than direct government action. In both countries the trend is to a reduction in sulphur dioxide levels. In contrast, nitrogen dioxide levels are increasing primarily because of growing road traffic levels. An attempt is made to compare air quality in Moscow with that in London. Constraints include the use of different methodologies and forms of data presentation. However, the overall impression is of substantial similarities in the air quality of the two capital cities.     

UK interpretation and implementation of the EEC Shellfish directive

The EEC Shellfish Directive is a policy designed to protect and, where necessary, improve the quality of designated shellfish waters. Its implementation within the UK, however, has had no effect upon water quality for two reasons. First, the policy has important defects, having ambiguities concerning public health provisions and lacking designation criteria. Second, UK government has sought to achieve formal compliance, while at the same time ensuring that its full financial impact on public expenditure has been contained. Consequently, only those fisheries which already comply with water quality standards have been designated. Within Wales, one fishery has been designated, while other, commercially more important, but grossly contaminated shellfisheries have not.     

A methodological assessment of raw materials in the UK

Many projects have attempted to model the consumption and recycling patterns of important raw materials, but without assessing the significance of that raw material to the UK. This article methodically assesses all the factors which influence the importance of each raw material, and ranks them in descending order of importance. Sensitivity analyses confirm that the resultant ranking is largely independent of factors used. Copper, oil, iron and steel, and aluminium, are the four most significant materials. This work provided the justification for a detailed examination of the copper industry and, in particular, the significance of recycling.     

Waste management issues for the UK ready-mixed concrete industry

The UK government has recognised the vital contribution that the construction industry has to play in contributing towards sustainable development. While the issue of hardened concrete waste has received considerable attention, process waste arising from the manufacture of ready-mixed concrete is relatively unexplored. It is apparent that initiatives such as the landfill tax have encouraged UK ready-mixed concrete manufacturers to reduce substantially the amount of waste they produce. Environmental pressures continue to increase and ready-mixed concrete producers are being forced towards a closed loop production system.     

Recycling opportunities in the UK for aluminium-bodied motor cars

The purpose of this paper is to review, and draw attention to, issues raised by the recycling of wrought aluminium from motor cars, even though the time horizon for significant arisings of such aluminium scrap is in the order of 20 years from now. Recycling of specific grades of wrought aluminium will be viable only when a means of positively identifying different types of scrap is available. A solution must be reliable, rapid, and low-cost; probably used in conjunction with a vehicle shredder. Such a system of identification will eliminate the need for costly hand-dismantling and segregation. Simple segregation of cast and wrought alloy will, however, be essential when wrought aluminium from car bodies dominates the scrap arisings. Such segregation will produce two high-value scrap products. The first of which will be similar to the A380 casting alloy specification, maintaining the current supply of this scrap, and the second will be a composite of wrought alloys. These issues are relevant to the aluminium scrap industry, which will have to accommodate future changes in the composition of the scrap it receives, and the motor industry, which may adopt in-house recycling of wrought alloy in order to offset the high purchase cost of aluminium.     

Competition,Sustainability and Packaging Policy in the UK

This paper examines the use of economic instruments in the implementation of environmental policy, based upon a recent study into the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC). It explores the introduction of competitionbased models in the UK implementation of the Directive, and assesses their ability to achieve positive environmentaloutcomes in a cost-efficient manner. Several problems for the competition model are discussed, particularly the fear of profiteering within marketbased systems by some economic operators; the behaviour of economic operators towards non-profitable market segments; the ability of free-market models to engender public participation in recycling programmes; and the failure of private sector solutions to consider the full environmental costs of packaging. Neo-liberalist competitive models do not address such problems convincingly, and therefore continued government intervention is required if the UK is to meet its targets under the EU Directive. Whilst economic instruments and competition provide avenues for a more effective environmental policy, there is a continuing need for government regulation rather than unquestioning faith in the benefits of the free market.