NERF at 35: Reflections on Recycling in the Past

A guest post by Henry Irving, Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University.

This year’s NERF conference in Durham was an opportunity to take stock after 35 years. Since its beginnings in 1989, the NERF has provided a space for the public, private and third sectors to share best practice about recycling and resources issues. I was very pleased to be invited to speak to mark this anniversary. As a historian, my immediate response was to reflect on the NERF’s part in a longer story.

There is nothing new about recycling. Humans have always produced waste and there have long been attempts to use this waste productively. The conference opened with a joke about how fitting Durham Town Hall is as a venue to discuss the circular economy. And it’s true: the official listing says the building has been altered throughout its 300-year history and contains stones that most likely date back to an earlier hall built in 1356.

The NERF’s history is more recent, but it’s no less important.

When the NERF was set up, modern recycling was still in its infancy. From the time of Queen Victoria onwards, waste had been viewed more as a threat to public health than as a source of resources. This view was challenged during the World Wars, but an experiment with kerbside recycling in the 1940s did not survive long in peace. The post-war years instead saw a general move towards landfill as a way of managing the flow of waste from an increasingly consumerist society.

This trend was challenged in three ways during the 1970s and 80s. First, in response to rising oil and commodity prices, the government called for ‘a new national effort to conserve and reclaim scarce materials’. Second, fearing a crisis of landfill capacity, some local authorities began to explore alternatives. Third, a growing environmental awareness led to experiments in small-scale community recycling and reuse programmes.

The North East was at the front of the search for alternatives. In the mid-1970s, the then Tyne and Wear County Council pursued an ambitious plan for a series of plants capable of turning household refuse into fuel (in the form of RDF pellets). Working in partnership with British Steel and various manufacturers, the council team built a state-of-the-art facility at Byker in Newcastle. ‘Byker Rec’ housed the world’s first trommel for separating materials and contained new electromagnetic kit for extracting tins.

Although the plant had a flawed operational history, it was a vision for the future when it was built. You can peek inside in this fascinating promotional film, ‘Today’s Waste Tomorrow’s Fuel’, produced by the council. 

The technological approach was not the only one available. North East groups were also active in the development of community recycling and reuse. One of the first schemes in the UK was set up in Middlesbrough in 1976. Teesside Wastechasers was a social enterprise, providing training for unemployed youths and prison leavers. In 1984, Newcastle adopted a similar model for Wastesaver. This scheme was set up as a collaboration between Tyne and Wear County Council, Tyneside Friends of the Earth and a recycling business called Conservaction. The Wastesaver scheme offered a monthly recycling collection for paper, aluminium, tin cans and used oil to 90,000 households.  It also promoted reuse, with a workshop renovating furniture for resale.

A leaflet sent to households in 1986, Wastesaver initiative

These experiments gave momentum to modern recycling practices. The NERF was set up to ensure that different parts of the sector were working towards common goals. And to prove just how different a world 1989 was, let me tell you that it was the year Sheffield was dubbed Britain’s ‘recycling city’ for offering the first council-run kerbside collections since the Second World War.

I ended my talk with five reflections, which could help us to think about the future.

They are:

1. Our understanding of waste and resources has changed over time.

2. Local authorities are significant, but they have never worked alone.

3. People do adapt to new routines.

4. What happens at a local level is crucial to participation.

5. Success depends on stakeholders working in the same direction.

   
   

We are at a pivotal moment in history for waste management. But, based on what has come before, I am confident these points will be true for at least another 35 years.