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LONDON, United Kingdom — Britain's landfills will be full in less than eight years unless there is a major shift in recycling rates.
This is the verdict of the Local Government Association (LGA), which says the public needs to be aware of the urgency of the situation and the financial bite they will feel if the problem is not addressed.
The U.K. is sending more waste to landfill than any other country in Europe and is heading for huge fines if it fails to rein in the amount of waste it is burying in the ground.
Council taxpayers are likely to pick up the bill if this happens. Radical reforms are needed, say council leaders.
Household, shops, businesses and manufacturers all have a vital role to play in protecting the environment and in cutting the amount of rubbish that is produced and thrown away.
LGA figures suggest at current rates of waste disposal Britain will hit its landfill limit in 2018.
Councilor Gary Porter, chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said, "For decades people used to be able to throw away their rubbish without worrying about the environmental or financial consequences.
"Those days have gone. Taxpayers face huge financial penalties if targets to reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill are not met," he continued. "Households should be congratulated for the efforts they have made in recent years to increase the amount of rubbish they recycle. But that doesn't change the fact that Britain is fast running out of space to dump rubbish in the ground.
"With the current financial squeeze that all councils are facing, it is more important than ever that they work with residents to make sure as much rubbish as possible is recycled to avoid being hit by heavy fines."
This article originally appeared at Edie News.
Landfill - CC license by Flickr user D'Arcy Norman
It occurs to me that we have
It occurs to me that we have advanced sufficiently with recycling in most areas that the big stores could now start to wield some of their buying power, stating that goods in non-recyclable packaging will not be given space on the shelf beyond a date.
Manufacturers, having been served this notice would be able to ensure that their packaging met these standards, and local authorities would have time to ensure that rubbish processing facilities could handle the recycling aspect.
Something that I have frequently heard in relation to recycling in the UK is that this plant or that one cannot handle a particular type of packaging. How about a system whereby we have local, regional and national centres. Local centres process what they can and hand off the remainder to the regional centres. Similarly, they take what they can process and forward the more exotic material on to the national centres. They in turn pass their knowledge back down the chain, and in time the regional and local centres take on more work and forward less rubbish.
All of this would need to backed up by legislation. As much as I despise unnecessary legislation, it occurs to me that we need a massive shift in the public's consciousness where rubbish is concerned, and that the only way this will be achieved is through them being forced to consider what happens to their rubbish, instead of forgetting what happens to it the moment it leaves the house.
The alternative is that we get used to living in amongst our garbage.
UK is already shipping waste
UK is already shipping waste to Brazil ... http://bit.ly/aNlull
They'll have to start
They'll have to start shipping the waste out by barge. But to where? Africa?