Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The Dustbin of Europe

Statistics, statistics, statistics: 17.9 million tonnes of waste dumped in landfill in 2005, another 16.9 million in 2006; 58% of all municipal waste is now buried in the ground; recycling and composting account for 30.7%, up 3% in a year. The figures are improving, slowly, but so are everyone else's: France, with an almost identical population, dumps just 12 million tonnes a year; in most categories, Germans recycle around twice as much as we do.

A small pat on the back, then, but much more work is needed, and fast: we've already dedicated an area the size of a small city (109 square miles) exclusively for landfill, and we'll run out of space altogether within the next decade at our current wasteful rates. The days of throwing rubbish away without a thought are over - the only question is has the government left itself enough time to cajole, or merely to coerce?

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