Why all the fuss about fortnightly bin collections? Not for the first time, the Mail is guilty of making cheap political capital at the expense of the truth. Landfill sites are not a renewable resource and, as the same paper is all too quick to point out when talking about immigration, Britain is a small and crowded country. UK households throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food waste each year, around a third of everything we buy. Rather than making excuses for "householders (who will be forced) to burn their rubbish on the quiet," the Mail should be encouraging its readers to show more civic responsibilty, to buy only what they need, and to compost as a form of patriotism.
The government is legislating against greed and stupidity, not personal freedoms. In the words of Jennie Price, the chief executive of the Waste & Resources Action Programme, "Our research has found that about half of the food we throw away could have been eaten. There is a real opportunity here for us to both save some money and help the environment by making a few small changes. The striking point which emerges from the research is that only 10% of those asked realised they were throwing much food away."
It's not too difficult to accomplish: when I lived in Tokyo I had to sort my rubbish into three different bags - food waste, recyclables and others. In Tochigi Prefecture my local council classified waste into seven groups, each with its own transparent bag and collection day. You'd be surprised how quickly people can adapt, even if they do need a bit of coercion to get them started.
No comments:
Post a Comment