The Low Carbon Economy Ltd

14 Oct 2009 12:10:37

Zero-waste Britain pledge

Britain is to move towards becoming a zero-waste nation in the coming years, environment secretary Hilary Benn has announced.

The minister made the pledge while attending a seminar of representatives of local authorities and the waste industry yesterday (Tuesday, October 13th).

Proposals outlined at the event include bringing the UK's total landfill waste down by half in the next decade and using 75 percent of household waste for energy generation or recycling in this time.

"We need to rethink how we view and treat waste in the UK. Why do we send valuable items like aluminium and food waste to landfill when we can turn them into new cans and renewable energy?" Mr Benn asked the conference.

"Using new technologies will help us to re-use things, for example anaerobic digestion that creates energy from food and farm waste."

A government consultation on whether items that can be recycled or composted should be banned from being sent to landfill is to be launched next year.

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&Re...

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Jeff van Weereld wrote:

16 Oct 2009

Here is some thought for Mr. Benn:

I live in Aberdeenshire. Some time ago I arrived at the local waste collection site with clear broken glass. I asked for the white bottle bank to be opened, so I could deposit it there. No. I was directed to the landfill container. The same happened with a quantity of plastic, partly LDPE, partly Polystyrene, both clearly marked. Same directions.

On the 'recycle' container for plastic bottles is a message: "only bottles, no food containers". But food containers are made from exactly the same plastics as the bottles!!

Are we recycling, or what.......?

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