Reducing waste should be every local councils top priority. It’s time we seriously did something about the huge amount of waste that goes to landfills every day. Even if biodegradable items (food, paper, biodegradable plastic etc) are sent to landfill it takes a very long time to biodegrade. This is because landfills are designed mainly to store waste rather than to help it decompose. Landfills also produce dangerous gases and liquids which have to be collected and disposed of safely.
| “The average person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks! Every year, 18 million tonnes of waste is sent to a UK landfill site.” – Recycling Bins |
Reducing waste ending up at landfill sites is what we need to do. This is better for the environment. It could also mean household council tax bills would go down as we wouldn’t be paying so much for waste disposal.
What to do with your rubbish (instead of putting it in the bin)
There are very simple things our Government, local councils, and we, could do to dramatically reduce the amount of waste the UK is producing. There are also some slightly more complicated and radical ways that I’ve suggested below. But the aim of those is to make the producers and sellers of waste more responsible for it, and hopefully encourage them to find sustainable alternatives.
I suppose you could call the below my wish list for reducing waste.
Radical Ideas For Reducing Waste
Food Waste
Every household should either be required to have, or provided with, a compost bin and all councils need to start collecting food waste.
- Councils can then properly compost biodegradable waste instead of it being put into landfill.
- Compost can be sold back to households or garden centres.
Nappies
New parents should be given a starter pack of 10 reusable nappies with clear instructions on how to use them and clean them (i.e. not individually washing them).
Non-biodegradable nappies should be taxed at a higher rate to discourage their use or be banned entirely.
Read how to have an eco-friendly baby.
| It can take 200 to 500 years for non-biodegradable nappies to decompose and biodegradables take up to 50 years and release methane when they decompose. – Naturaler |
Fresh Fruit and Veg
Shops selling fresh fruit and vegetables should be required to sell sustainable / washable / reusable produce bags, or biodegradable ones. All non-biodegradable plastic bags to be phased out within a year. Customers using their own sustainable produce bags to be given a discount for the first year to encourage their use before it becomes second nature to carry them.
Bulk Bins
All supermarkets should be required to have a ‘bulk bin section’ where customers can fill their own reusable food containers with items such as nuts, grains, rice, pasta, dried fruit etc. There should also be bulk bins available for things like baking soda (a great cleaning agent).
Sustainable containers must be available for purchase. (Reusable plastic could be used but biodegradable ones should be cheaper. I don’t think reusable ones should be less expensive, if you pay more for something you’re more likely to look after it and use it).
Plastic Free Aisles
All supermarkets should also be required to have a clearly labelled aisle dedicated to completely plastic free / sustainable products so that customers have more ability to purchase plastic free items.
Single Use Plastic
There should be clear labels with large font on every item of plastic produced…
Labels to include the following information:
- Clearly stating whether the plastic is BIODEGRADABLE or SINGLE USE & NOT BIODEGRADABLE
- Clearly stating the producer of the plastic and the shop it was bought from.
All shops should be required to buy back the single use plastic from the customer based on weight.
Either – Shops can regain some of that money back by taking it back to the producer of the plastic who will then also be required to buy it back. This will mean the shops have to sort the plastic they had to buy back but the producers will then have to pay for its disposal.
Or – The shops have to pay for the disposal of the plastic.
They’ll soon start to find more sustainable suppliers if it costs them money and time to deal with unnecessary waste.
| Problem 1 – packaging for international items sent by post. E.g. Amazon. Potential solution (difficult to implement) – all items bought through Amazon to be collected at a UK Amazon warehouse and labels added to any packaging before being sent on to consumers. Councils can collect this plastic and charge Amazon for the amount of plastic used. Amazon will then hopefully encourage all its sellers to replace plastic with more sustainable packaging or risk being removed from the website. Problem 2 – they’ll put the prices up Potential solution – if prices start going up, shop around. Buy from farmers markets where plastic is less likely to be used. If supermarkets lose lots of customers they’ll soon drop the prices again. |
While we still have so much plastic why isn’t it being used to make plastic bricks? So much plastic is not recyclable but using it to make bricks is at least reducing the amount going to landfill. More info here. I believe this is something all local recycling centres run by councils should be doing.
| Read 25 Ways To Use Less Plastic |
Water bottles
The sale of all plastic water bottles (up to and including 5 litres) should be banned.
In the case of water, shops can provide chargeable water refill stations and sell reusable water bottles (bpa free!) or sell water in glass bottles. Some refill stations are now available, which is fantastic. Download the app so you can easily find one of the 20000 refill stations in the UK. (One 15 x litre plastic bottle of water uses less plastic and is more likely to be reused or recycled.)
If customers are encouraged to carry their own reusable water bottles, they’re more likely to refill their water at home, reducing the need for any kind of plastic water bottle.
All other bottled drinks should be sold in cans (recyclable) or glass (recyclable and reusable).
Disposable Coffee Cups
All single use coffee cups should be phased out within the year. Until then customers should be offered a discount when using their own reusable coffee cups, and just like reusable shopping bags, it will become second nature to carry them.
In the meantime customers should take the coffee cups and lids back to the shop so they can be bought back and the company has to pay for their disposal.
Clothes
Councils could provide regular free sewing classes where people can use a sewing machine for free and learn how to use it and how to re-purpose fabrics.
The incredible amount of clothes purchased, and thrown away, has to be reduced. Fast Fashion means that those highly influenced by what the latest ‘must have’ item of clothing is are constantly updating their wardrobes. Clothes are available that are so cheap that it’s hard to fathom how there is any profit involved. These cheap items are often very poor quality. When clothes are made by people being paid a pittance for their work it becomes more understandable as to why they’re so cheap and such poor quality.
Why can’t we go back to the days where you bought good quality clothing that you knew would last? Everyone needs to learn the basics of home sewing so that they can easily repair an item of clothing or re-purpose it rather than just throwing it out after one or two uses.
You can make a big difference by buying secondhand clothes and always donating your unwanted items.
Electrical Goods
All electrical items sold must have the potential to be repaired. The number of items we currently replace rather than just repair is ridiculous. It must become cheaper to repair something than to buy a replacement. At the very least companies must part exchange every electrical item. They can then either repair the items themselves or use them for parts.
Additional ideas to reduce energy usage and pollution
Reducing waste doesn’t only mean reducing actual things we also need to consider reducing our energy use and the pollution that goes along with it.
Green Energy
Green energy suppliers should be subsidised by the Government to encourage all households to move to more sustainable forms of energy.
Installation of solar panels to be encouraged and subsidised for all homes.
New Houses
All new housing must be built to a much higher standard than is required now. All new builds should be as eco-friendly as possible. E.g. Every new home to be fitted with solar panels, water and energy saving devices, double glazing and environmentally friendly, efficient heating / cooling systems.
Council Owned Properties
All council owned properties, commercial and domestic, should be upgraded within 2 years to be as energy efficient and eco-friendly as possible.
Water
All homes should be put onto water meters but with advice given on how to save water at home.
All homes with gardens should be provided with water butts to collect rainwater for use in gardens. These should be supplied by the water companies.
Made in Britain
All supermarkets to have clearly labelled aisles for all items grown / produced in Britain. This is to encourage purchasing locally made products to help our own economy and to reduce the carbon footprint of products sold.
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Concluding Thoughts
I believe that most of these suggestions are easily workable, however it would mean that companies and politicians have to completely change their current way of thinking and shift their priorities. The problem we have, of course, is that ‘growth’ is seen as the most important political indicator of success. What growth actually means is that shareholders profits are being viewed as more important than protecting the world we live in, with rare cases bucking the trend like the Boston Tea Party coffee chain where the company has put the planet before profits. Please support them instead of other chain coffee shops! More info “Coffee Cup Ban: Boston Tea Party’s Sales Fall”
If we all lived more sustainable lives and encouraged more products to be made in the UK it would be a completely different society to the one we’ve become used to and that scares people. But I do believe that every households current monthly outgoings would actually be reduced overall. Energy and water bills would go down for start. Council tax bills should go down with regard to waste disposal (after time).
The weekly grocery shop could actually end up being a lot cheaper if people were buying from bulk bins. (Much less packaging should mean its cheaper). Customers would be able to take their plastics back to the shops in exchange for money. Doing this encourages people not to litter as they’re literally throwing their own money away if they do. That also means less litter for councils to deal with. Why are taxpayers responsible for paying for waste disposal rather than the companies producing the waste?
You could even see a resurgence of the traditional high street as local greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers etc would be more able to compete with supermarkets. Alternatively supermarkets might actually start using local producers more often, again meaning more money for the local economy.
Could some businesses end up going out of business? Yes. If companies are not willing to adapt then it is very possible that some businesses might disappear. However, others will take their place. And the new ones taking their place will necessarily have to be more sustainable and environmentally aware.
Am I being naive? Probably, and I certainly don’t pretend to be an expert on the financial implications of some of these ideas. Overall though I do think that our planet is more important than money. Reducing waste in all aspects of our day to day to life is not only possible, it’s essential.
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