The government recently announced a number of measures that will significantly reduce the amount of waste we produce as a nation.
The measures include requiring manufacturers to pay for the cost of recycling or disposing of their packaging waste so that there is more of an emphasis on responsibility of the producers of waste rather than the end users.
Another one of the measures that was announced was to make recycling much more consistent across different areas of the country. Depending on where you live, you may or may not be able to recycle certain plastics and other materials at the kerbside.
This makes it very confusing for consumers to know what they can put into their recycle bins, what needs to be taken to the dump and what goes in general waste.
There will again be an emphasis on reducing single use plastics and other containers by introducing a deposit return scheme, something that was previously in force in the 60s and 70s. This would certainly encourage more people to return plastic bottles and cans for recycling.
There will be a review of producer responsibility for goods that are harder to recycle and to dispose of as well as looking into making items that last longer or can be repaired much more easily, moving back to the ‘make do and mend’ mentality of the past.
This would surely be a good thing not only in terms of reducing waste, but also in terms of economics for consumers. The throwaway society that we are in today must assume some responsibility to the amount of waste that is produced.
The other main part of the announcement by the government was that they would like there to be less food waste and there may be weekly collections of food waste in future. Food waste from manufacturers and industry is also being addressed in another initiative that was announced in October 2018.
However, whatever plans are made by the government, we all need to do our own bit to reduce as much waste as possible and food waste is one good place to start.
You can see the full announcement from the government here.
