WIREDGOV

We are all being urged to rethink our approach to waste, in a new campaign launched by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) today.

The new campaign, part of the Government’s Act On CO2 campaign, looks at everything from food waste to furniture recycling and encourages consumers to ‘Remember. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.’ 

A new website offering tips and advice to consumers on making better use of the things we all too often put straight in the bin or take to the dump, also launches today at www.direct.gov.uk/waste.

Research published recently by Defra showed that an additional 500,000 tonnes of household waste could be saved from landfill by doing more to reuse it or find another home for it.  And if every household in the EU recycled one electrical or electronic item such as a mobile phone or iPod, 73,000 tonnes could be diverted from landfill – the same as 9,500 round the world flights.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said:

“I set out recently what the Government will do to help the country on its path to becoming a zero waste nation.  Making better use of everything around us will really help us  to tackle the impact our waste has on climate change, and save us money too.  That’s why our campaign is encouraging everyone to rethink what they might think of as ‘waste’ and ‘recycling’ – we can all do things like put our old sofa on Freecycle rather than taking it to the dump, or recycle our old mobile if we get a new one.”

Notes to editors

1. The £800,000 campaign launched today is part of the Government Act On CO2 campaign, and includes national print and radio advertising – the radio ads launch today and the print ads launch on 2nd November.
2. The campaign was announced by Hilary Benn on 13 October at a summit with local authorities and the waste industry.
3. Hilary Benn also made a range of announcements on Government waste policy.  More information can be found at www.defra.gov.uk/news/2009/091013a.htm
4. Some interesting waste statistics:

• England currently recycles 37.5 per cent of its waste;
• UK households throw out on average £50 of perfectly edible food every single month;
• If every household in the UK recycled one electrical or electronic item, 73,000 tonnes could be diverted from landfill, or over 65,000 tonnes of CO2 – the same as 9,500 flights;
• If we all recycled one glass jar, we would have avoided over 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year – the equivalent of taking 30,000 cars off the road.