Mandatory household recycling targets present a serious challenge to Local Authorities within the UK (Perrin and Barton,2001). The Directive 2008/98/EC on waste has highlighted by 2020 50% of waste from households either needs to be recycled or reused. Each year we are generating over 177 million tonnes of waste in England, as well contributing to environmental damage this is a poor use of resources and resident money (DEFRA,2015).
The waste hierarchy ranking effective waste management suggests first and foremost waste needs to be prevented. This can be implemented through reducing our waste e.g. buying in bulk, other methods include using durable products. Re-using materials is also encouraged e.g. re-using bags, containers or boxes and giving items that are no longer wanted to charity shops. Recycling offered by Council’s including kerbside recycling schemes, local recycling sites as well as Household Waste Recycling Centre’s (dumps/tips) which should be used once residents reduce and reuse their waste to assist in the UK’s movement towards increasing recycling rates. Recovery of materials is a further option, including techniques such as Energy From Waste (Efw) – facilities to treat waste under controlled conditions, to reduce the volume and recover value from waste through the generation of electricity and heat (Biffa,2011). Electricity generated from a typical 300,000tpa facility would be approximately equal to the consumption in 68,000 houses (Biffa,2011). The last option is disposal, considered the least appropriate action of our waste, consisting of rubbish disposed in landfill. In 2001, the 1500 landfill sites in the UK contributed to a quarter of the UK’s methane emissions, showing the harmful impacts landfills are doing to our precious environment (Recyclenow, 2015).
The benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling our waste conserves resources, saves energy, protects the environment and most of all reduces waste to landfill hence people should continue to practice these methods and try to reach their optimum in reducing household waste if the UK is to reach its recycling rate of 50% by 2020.
References
Biffa (2011). About Energy From Waste. Available at: http://www.biffa.co.uk/waste-processing/energy-from-waste/about-energy-from-waste.html. Accessed on 12th February 2015.
DEFRA (2015). Reducing and managing Waste. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-and-managing-waste. Accessed on 12th February 2015.
Perrin, D., Barton,J., 2001. Issues associated with transforming household attitudes and opinions into materials recovery: a review of two kerbside recycling schemes. Resources, Conservation and Recycling , vol 33 (1).
Recycle now (2015). Why Recycle?. Available at: http://www.recyclenow.com/recycle/why-recycle. Accessed 12th February 2015.
