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Waste Summit
by Bob Walker |
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Environment secretary Margaret Beckett has met representatives from the waste industry and local authorities to discuss ways of tackling Britain's mountains of rubbish.
As this programme revealed earlier this week, Britain faces European fines of half a million pounds a day unless it re-cycles far more domestic waste.
A leaked report from Downing Street's own think-tank - the Performance and Innovation Unit - revealed the fines could be imposed from 2010 under the EU's Landfill Directive designed to cut the amount of waste being dumped in rubbish sites. The report warns that re-cycling rates need to be tripled in order to avoid the fines.
The PIU wants the government to set demanding long-term targets for industry to stimulate innovation. It says that small and medium sized firms present a particular challenge.
At the Hockerton Housing Project in the Nottinghamshire countryside near Southwell, five families are already making their contribution to improving the environment. They live in houses partially covered with soil to provide insulation, they drink purified rainwater and rely on solar power. Even their own waste water and sewage is treated in a reed bed in a nearby pond.
Nick and Trudy White do everything possible to avoid putting waste into their wheely bid. They have five separate bins for recycled waste but admit that they are not perfect
Nick tends to throw most of his coloured junk mail into the bin along with the occasional nappy from his youngest child. And they find it difficult to re-use plastic waste including bottles. Trudy says many people - particularly the elderly - also find it difficult and inconvenient to travel to bottle and paper banks.
LINKS
Britain Fails to Recycle Enough Waste
Opposition to incinerators grows
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