Don't let it go to waste

Sunday 1st January 2012

The UK wastes hundreds of millions of pounds each year by not recycling its recyclables

According to a report by Friends of the Earth (www.foe.co.uk), we're throwing away more than £650,000,000 every year by incinerating or dumping into landfills something like 24 million tonnes of materials that could otherwise be re-used or recycled.

In its report "Gone to waste: the valuable resources that European countries bury and burn" published in October 2009, Friends of the Earth call upon the UK government to scrap its plans for new incinerators, and to ban the dumping of recyclable waste. It claims that the savings made could be re-invested into making the UK's economy one that is more environmentally friendly. The report suggests that if materials were recycled instead, as well as the savings cited above, it would also hugely reduce the country's carbon footprint (the equivalent of removing six million cars from our roads), lessen the need to import raw materials from abroad, as well as potentially creating many new jobs within the waste management industry.

Dr Michael Warhurst from Friends of the Earth says, "it's time we recognised the real value of the materials we throw away every day", and cited the UK's existing attitude to recycling as "economic madness". We here at Trasch agree, which is why we set-up our free swap and sell service for schools and colleges. If you've something unwanted, rather than send it to landfill, list it here for free, and let's see if we can't do our bit to help organisations like Friends of the Earth help us to keep our planet in one piece.