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| Environment and waste |
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Waste is an environmental concern for several reasons. The most immediately pressing in the UK is perhaps the problem of what to do with it all. Most of the waste disposed of here goes into holes in the ground - landfill sites.
These are filling rapidly - we're set to run out in about 5 - 10 years. Some is incinerated - about 10% - but people want new incinerator built near their house about as much as they want a new landfill site down the road. Throwing away less is the best answer.
 We are also using resources wastefully. The planet is finite, and much of what we use won't grow back. If we keep just using things and throwing them away the outlook is pretty bleak for future generations, without the comforts we have come to expect. Even things that do grow back are being used up faster than they can do so - and yet we throw so much away, or burn it, when we could be using less in the first place, or using it over and over again to extend its useful life.
Waste also links into climate change - it takes energy to create the waste packaging we throw away, and burning or landfilling generally creates more greenhouse gases than recycling when measured over the lifecycle of a material.
Polestar's Carbon Journey Revealed, linked on the right, is a short video showing the journey from tree seedling, through papermaking, printing and distribution, to the customer and back through recycling and into paper again. It's very interesting - well worth a look. |
Print and waste:
Vision in Print for best practice guidance and training in Lean manufacturing
'Polestar's Carbon Journey Revealed'. This is the high quality version - there is also a normal quality version on YouTube if preferred.
LetsRecycle this link takes you directly to the pages with news and price information
WRAP for more information on the recycled materials market