27/06/2005 - Environment
Agency Chief Executive, Barbara Young, will
call on local authorities and businesses
to start making difficult decisions on waste
management in a speech at the South East
Waste Summit today (Monday 27 June).
Each household generates around 1.2 tonnes
of waste each year and this amount is increasing
by two to five per cent every year. In the
next five years, important decisions have
to be made, which will guide future waste
strategies. In the year 2000 only 14.5 per
cent of waste was recycled, eight per cent
was incinerated and a whopping 81 per cent
was disposed of in landfill.
Those involved in the waste industry and
in waste processes need to look at real
alternatives to landfill and to start working
to change public perception of what happens
to waste. Landfill sites tend to be in remote
locations, so public awareness is low. New,
clean methods of waste processing, including
incineration and digestion must be considered
as real alternatives to landfill. Not only
do these methods reduce the long-term impact
of waste, but also provide renewable energy
sources.
As well as finding new ways to manage waste,
more must be done to change public behaviour
and improve recycling figures. While this
might seem like an impossible task, we can
take heart from improvements in recycling
numbers in recent years. Since 1998, recycling
rates in the South East have risen from
just 12 per cent to nearly 23 per cent.
Barbara Young, Chief Executive of the Environment
Agency said:
"The already densely populated South
East is particularly resource intensive,
but the Region also prides itself on being
in the forefront in Europe on economic development.
Much more needs to be done to make more
efficient use of resources and to achieve
best practice in waste management. The Region
should use its advantage to show leadership
in resource efficiency and waste management,
and to use the challenge of new growth areas
to achieve best practice and show how seriously
the South East takes sustainability."
