Life after landfill: look West?
by Jo-ann Hodgson in At home on 16.04.08
Defra today awarded Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits to four waste management projects across the UK to help improve our country’s shameful landfill record.
The UK has one of the highest levels of landfill in Europe, with 60% of 35.5million tonnes of municipal waste being swept under the soil in 2006.
Defra hopes the PFI credits awarded to the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Partnership, Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Suffolk County Council and Leeds City Council will help the local authorities deliver a recycling rate of at least 50% by 2020.
Such initiatives are being rolled out to help the UK reach new packaging recovery and recycling targets set by Defra in February. The targets will increase 1% year-on-year, from 72% in 2008 to 74% in 2010, by when it’s hoped the UK will see a saving of 285,436 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Inspiration from the West?
We could do worse than look to our neighbours on the Emerald Isle for inspiration when it comes to reducing unsightly and damaging landfill. The Republic of Ireland has a successful track record in packaging and waste management, exceeding its 50% EU recovery rate target by 9.9% in 2005.
“The recycling of packaging waste is probably the leading Irish environmental success story,” Tony Killeen, Minister of State at Ireland’s Environmental Department told the 2008 Repak Service Providers Conference earlier this month.
So what can we do at ground level to help make the UK equally proud of its recycling record? Well, our rundown of the top five recycling sites online is a great place to start.
And at the time we wrote that, we missed How Can I Recycle This?, which thoroughly deserves a mention too. If you ever wondered what to do with your old Lego, rubber gloves or bread bag tags, the answers are all here.
IMAGE by flickr user Zen
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