Day 075 - 17 Jan 95 - Page 21
1 MR. MORRIS: You contrasted waste as a problem with waste as a
2 resource. What do you mean by that?
3 A. Well, for instance, I think that at the moment people
4 generally and many aspects of business and public life
5 regard waste as something that simply has to be disposed
6 of, as seeing it as a resource that can be used in other
7 ways, and I think that much resource is, for instance, an
8 energy resource must waste is an energy resource and is
9 perceived as that. It may be, I mean, there is great
10 concern, as you have already expressed, about landfill, but
11 properly processed waste that becomes inert is a resource
12 in terms of land form and land formation, shaping. In my
13 involvement as a creative environmentalist, if you like, in
14 architecture and planning, frequently materials have to be
15 used to create new land forms, to create acoustic barriers,
16 and so on. Waste material can be used in that constructive
17 way. It is not currently thought of sufficiently in that
18 way, so I do not see waste as a problem.
19
20 Q. You mean in building materials?
21 A. No, not, so much building materials as landscape
22 forming materials. You want to create embankments, to
23 create acoustic barriers may be in relation to airports or
24 motorways, or whatever, that sort of material. In the
25 absence of the kind of waste material that used to be
26 available in the form of pulverised fuel ash and things of
27 that kind there is now a growing need for waste to be
28 processed and made available as a resource, because in the
29 absence of that, then what we shall see is the further
30 erosion of rock and materials from quarries in order to do
31 that. So, I think there is a need for a whole mental shift
32 in terms of waste, to think of it, to see it as a resource
33 not as a problem.
34
35 Q. But that is something which is really yet to get off the
36 ground, is it?
37 A. It is gaining credence but it is something which has
38 yet to be pursued, I think. Part of my personal concern
39 would be to see that shift.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think, if I may say so, with Professor
42 Ashworth we would be much better to stick to environment/index.html">litter unless
43 you have got some particular point to make. You have said
44 more than once you just want to get to the truth.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: Yes, I understand that.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So be it, but there has to be a limit on just
49 how expansive one is in one's enquiries.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: Yes, I appreciate that.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just bear it in mind.
54
55 MR. MORRIS: To be honest, I thought 95 per cent of the
56 Plaintiffs' questions this morning were irrelevant to the
57 case.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You stick to what you think is relevant and
60 then tell me at the end why that is relevant and other
