Way off reaching our target in waste disposal

According to the Welsh’s environment minister, the recycling rate in the UK is proof that we need to change the way we think about our waste disposal. It is shocking to think how much waste we produce as a nation, but when you consider how much of this waste goes to a landfill site where it takes many years to biodegrade, it is even more shocking.

As a nation, we are currently producing around 300 billion tons of waste per year. However statistics show that in 2000 we were only recycling approximately 7% of our household waste. Although this figure is creeping up, it isn’t moving quickly enough to enable us to meet our target of recycling 70% of our waste by 2025.

Changing attitudes towards waste disposal

The Zero Waste strategy appears to be largely out of touch with what is actually happening at grass roots level which is why we need a major overall to change people’s attitudes to waste disposal and recycling. According to some recycling needs to be made easier, but it couldn’t get any easier now that most of us have specially designated bins.