Sunday, June 03, 2007

The... seemingly invisible... Elephant in the room.

With all the various initiatives to solve our energy, waste, etc problems, and the less than measured way most media have reported it all, I found this form last week's Sunday Times most interesting: Making a pile out of rubbish

Significantly, it was in the Business section.

There was also a small panel that is worth repeating here in the spirit of enviROI:

DOMESTIC WASTE IS LESS THAN 10% OF THE TOTAL

The materials that have been the historical favourites for recyclers make up a surprisingly small proportion – glass accounts for 7% and tin cans only 3%.

Last week’s government paper focused on household waste. But in terms of the total waste generated by the UK as a whole, domestic rubbish accounts for less than 10%. Commerce produces slightly more (11%) and industry produces 14% of the national total.

By sheer weight, more than 60% of waste comes from mining, quarrying, demolition and construction. So why not worry about these really big waste producers?

Quite, though a new strategy to tackle this will apparently be outlined later this year.

However, I remain concerned where the priorities lie here.

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