BUSINESSES can also do their bit when it comes to reducing waste. In the fifth of our special reports Chris Baker looks at what gets thrown away at work and some of

the things being done in Sussex to reduce,

re-use and recycle.

THE downside of economic boom times is that the amount of rubbish business and industry creates goes up - whether it comes from building sites, factories, offices, or high street stores.

Commercial rubbish dwarfs what households throw away and accounts for about three quarters of our waste, most of it today going into Sussex's shrinking landfill sites.

Without a crystal ball waste planners can never be really sure what they will have to cope with. If the economy is doing well there will be lots, if times are hard not so much.

The rubbish continues to pile up. Because of the uncertainty nobody is quite sure how much commercial waste gets thrown away. But the best estimate in East Sussex, Brighton and Hove is 900,000 tonnes a year.

Nationally, offices and shops produce 15 million tones of waste a year, agriculture 80 million tonnes, factories 69 million tonnes and demolition and construction 32 million tonnes.

The only respite from the disposal headache in Sussex is that we produce little dangerous waste, among the lowest of anywhere in Britain.

Waste from construction and demolition, like bricks, concrete, timber, and iron and steel, accounts for the lion's share of commercial rubbish dumped in landfill sites in Sussex at about 59 per cent.

Refuse from factories, offices and shops, often easily-recyclable things like paper and cardboard boxes, makes up another 16 per cent.

Dangerous or difficult waste such as asbestos, solvents, and used oil accounts for about two per cent.

Virtually all the hazardous waste produced in Sussex is exported to specialised tips, or incinerators, outside the county, although some is dumped in landfill sites at home.

Demolition

Waste disposal plans being drawn-up by East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove Council call for about 40 per cent of industrial and commercial waste to be recycled or re-used, with about half of the rest going for incineration and about half to landfill.

A quarter of construction and demolition waste is already used again and waste planners hope half will be recycled during the new strategy's lifetime, from 2001 to 2011.

The Environment Agency has introduced a number of initiatives in

Sussex aimed at reducing the amount of all types of waste that gets thrown away by businesses.

Among them is a waste minimisation club last winter, which was started after 12 companies replied from 250 contacted about the scheme. Only seven eventually committed themselves to the project.

Other Environment Agency schemes include another business club aimed at reducing hotel waste, projects at Lewes and Worthing Hospitals to cut clinical waste and in Hastings a joint effort with the borough council to offer green advice to companies.

One of the seven Sussex businesses which joined the waste minimisation club was Hydro Dynamic Products, Shoreham, which supplies the printing industry.

It set up training sessions for staff, an environment team and offered prizes to staff who made the best suggestions to minimise waste, which attracted more than 100 ideas.

The company's environment co-ordinator, Nicola Tait, said: "At the beginning it was quite difficult because you have to get everybody involved."

Annual savings due to recycling amounted to £1,500 for cardboard, £500 for paper and £250 for food.

Brighton-based waste minimisation advisers EcoSys are funded by local authorities and the Environment Agency. Among its projects is waste minimisation at Sussex University.

A cardboard recycling system was introduced at the Falmer campus, and and it could be extended to shopping areas.

All that is needed is a baler and somebody who would pick all the waste cardboard up so it could be baled and re-sold.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.