Waste Management and Sites of Historic/Architectural Significance A Conservation Perspective A dissertation submitted for MSc. in Architectural Conservation, University of Edinburgh By Martha Vail—student no. S1360076 First Reader: Stuart Eydmann 2 Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Edinburgh College of Art The University of Edinburgh 2013-2014 Contents Title Page 1 Contents 2 List of Illustrations 3 Acknowledgements 5 Introduction: Waste Matters 6 Conservation Concerns 13 A Case of Integration/A Case of Fragmentation 54 Conclusion: Opportunities for Better Practice and 78 Integration Bibliography 83 3 List of Illustrations All illustrations except where noted are by the author. Title Page—Scott Monument in Litter, an installation created by artist Kate Ive for the launch of the Scottish Government’s national litter strategy. Photo: Tony Marsh. 1. Rubbish depot, Iona Abbey, Isle of Iona, Scotland. 2. Seagulls and bin bags, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. 3. Littered cigarette butts, University of Edinburgh Library—architect, Basil Spence, 1967, Edinburgh, Scotland 4. Former litter bin, Queen Street, Edinburgh 5. “Gum Drop”, Cardiff, Wales: Cardiff Council 6. Dog waste bag dispenser, Prague, Czech Republic 7. Wall-hung litterbin, Santiago de Compostela, Spain 8. Gull proof bags, Heriot Row, Edinburgh, Scotland 9. Improperly used gull proof bag, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 10. Single gull proof bag on railing, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 11. Multiple gull proof bags on railing, Great King Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 12. The “Brunel” litterbin design: Glasdon 13. Iron litterbin, Altstadt, Nuremberg, Germany 14. High Street, Stirling, Scotland 15. Metal street litterbin, Prague, Czech Republic 16. Kranner’s Fountain, Prague, Czech Republic 17. Litterbin incorporating ashtray and cigarette disposal, University of Bamberg, Germany 18. Detail, litterbin incorporating ashtray and cigarette disposal, University of Edinburgh, Scotland 19. Cigarette receptacle, Stellenbosch, South Africa 4 20. Recycling depot, V &A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa 21. Recycling depot, Grassmarket, Edinburgh, Scotland 22. Recycling depot, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Eli Boonin-Vail 23. Communal rubbish bin, Nelson Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 24. Plastic recycling and posh litter, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 25. Recycling depot, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, Scotland: Lilian Main 26. Recycling and waste collection vaults, Nuremberg, Germany 27. Waste receptacle with historic photograph, Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland 28. Recycling bin with underground vault, Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland 29. Dirty Little Secrets kiosk and staff, The Meadows, Edinburgh, Scotland 30. The Colorado Chautauqua, 1899: JB Sturtevant (Colorado Chautauqua Association Archives) 31. Measuring heat loss, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Jeff Medanich 32. Colorado Chautauqua Map, Colorado Chautauqua Association 33. Public trash and recycling station, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Eli Boonin-Vail 34. South Alley waste depot, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Eli Boonin-Vail 35. North Alley waste depot, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Eli Boonin-Vail 36. Interior, South Alley waste depot, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Eli Boonin-Vail 37. Interior, trade waste depot, Colorado Chautauqua Boulder, Colorado: Eli Boonin-Vail 38. Trade waste depot, Colorado Chautauqua, Boulder, Colorado: Christiano Sosa 39. Edinburgh World Heritage Site map: Edinburgh World Heritage 40. Fleshmarket Close, Edinburgh, Scotland 41. Railing, Nelson Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 5 42. Geddes Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland 43. Fly tipping, Dundas Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 44. Red plastics and cardboard recycling box, Cumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 45. Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 46. Anti-dog fouling sign, Dundas Street, Edinburgh, Scotland 6 Acknowledgements I greatly appreciate the support given to this project by my tutor Stuart Eydmann who, while expressing some concern that this was a bit of a “Cinderella subject”, gave me excellent guidance and introductions to several key informants. Many professionals in conservation, waste management, and municipal government kindly took time from their busy schedules to lend me the benefit of their experience and expertise. In particular, I’d like to thank: Seif Al Rashidi, former Durham World Heritage Site Co-ordinator; Alex Wilkinson, Director, Edinburgh World Heritage; Susan Connelly, Executive Director, Colorado Chautauqua Association; Jeff Medanich, Facilities and Preservation Manager, Colorado Chautauqua Association; Paul Hutton, Task Force Manager (Blue Shift) and his staff, Street Cleansing Department, City of Edinburgh Council; Hema Herkes, Waste Project Officer, City of Edinburgh Council; Beth Thomas, Stonehenge World Heritage Site Co-ordinator; Cerian Trevan, Operations Manager, Stonehenge; and Karen King, West Lothian Recycling Officer. I’d like to acknowledge the dozens of anonymous tourists and residents who participated in street interviews, and the participants in the several focus groups that were conducted as part of my research for the Edinburgh case study. Rachel Anderson and her geography class at Drummond Community High School were instrumental in the early stages of research and street data collection. A veritable army of people sent rubbish photographs to me as they went about Edinburgh and other sites of historic or architectural interest. Not all these images found their way into these pages, for lack of space and not for lack of interest or photographic talent! Thanks especially to Kenneth Barker, Eli Boonin-Vail, Lilian Main, Anna Lank, Mario Cariello, Christiano Sosa, 7 Barbara Bateman, and Brinah Vincent for photos, support, and helpful insights. 8 Introduction: Waste Matters A former co-ordinator of the Durham World Heritage Site summed it up well, “Waste management is only an issue to conservationists when something goes wrong.”1 It may—and indeed does—serve interpretive and community needs well to camouflage rubbish itself at historic sites like Iona Abbey in artful stone bunkers (Illustration 1, below left). In contrast, the role of waste management at sites of historic and architectural significance needs to be laid open and picked apart, although perhaps not as the gulls of Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town do to plastic bin bags in on a nightly basis (Illustration 2, below right). For the purposes of this dissertation, “waste management” comprises approaches to three different components: commercial and residential waste, 1 Seif Al Rashidi, phone conversation with author, July 20, 2014. 9 including the solid by-products of bricks-and-mortar conservation projects; systems for dealing with refuse in public places, such as litter bins in streets; and litter, the rubbish that site users casually discard without resort to, or in favour of, designated receptacles.2 Practically every site of architectural or historic significance manages waste, and some do it better than others. Most do it as a matter of course in a manner of fact way, without giving much strategic consideration to the challenges—let alone the opportunities— rubbish presents. This dissertation argues that waste management needs to be given more than a peripheral role in our approach to conserving significant sites: buildings, conservation areas, and built environments. Incorporated into a holistic approach to site management, the ways waste is addressed can beneficially affect physical condition of the site, behind-the-scenes operations of the site, and user experience and appreciation of the site. 2 Other components, beyond the scope of this dissertation, might include non-solid waste, agricultural or industrial waste, and waste created by extractive activities like mining or drilling. While these components might affect selected sites of historical or architectural interest, they are normally addressed through specific policy and legislative regulation and their treatment is often beyond the control of site managers. 10 When Benjamin Franklin—originator of all good things American — organised the first publicly funded garbage collection in 1757, he could see the merits of clean streets, but he could never have foreseen the modern landfill or a Pacific island of plastic bottles.3 A giant industry has arisen in response to what has become a global problem: dealing with the waste created by the tremendous increase in consumption of manufactured products during the post-World War II era. In the United Kingdom alone, more than 25 million tonnes of waste is produced each year; this represents a five-fold increase from the 1960s.4 The impacts of the waste crisis are well known and well documented. Cities struggle to find more landfill. First-world nations issue zero-waste policies with ambitious and time-limited goals. Developing nations are 3 John Roberts, “Garbage: The Black Sheep of the Family,” Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, accessed July 15, 2014, http://www.deq.state.ok.us/lpdnew/wastehistory/wastehistory.htm. 4 Data from the Highway Agency cited in "The Ins and Outs of Litter and Fly tipping" Litteraction, accessed May 15, 2014, http://www.litteraction.org.uk/images/new%20stuff/D1%20ins%20and%20outs,%20legal%20st uff.pdf. Also found in Allan Lewis, Polly Turton, and Thomas Sweetman, Litterbugs: How to Deal with the Problem of Littering (Policy Exchange: London, 2009), 7.