The UK is throwing away more than £650 million (700m Euro) every year by dumping and incinerating waste, a new report by Friends of the Earth shows. The report is called "Gone to waste: The valuable resources that European countries bury and burn". It estimates the value of materials that could be recycled, based on an European Union-wide analysis of 2004 data that has been adjusted to account for the improved recycling rates in the UK since then.

According to Friends of the Earth in the UK, of approximately 51 million tonnes of key recyclables from households, businesses and industry in 2004, approximately 28 million tonnes (around 55 percent) was being sent for disposal. With an adjustment to account for increased UK recycling between 2004 and 2008, approximately 24 million tonnes of key recyclables are still being sent for disposal.

In the executive summary of the report it is said, that countries across the European Union are continuing to dispose of significant amounts of valuable recyclable materials to landfill or incineration. The analysis examines this disposal in more depth, in an attempt to provide a reasonable estimate of the amount of different recyclable materials that is lost through landfilling or incineration. The study then estimates the value of these lost materials, and the climate change benefits that could have been gained by recycling these materials.

A study by Prognos, published in 2008 (using the best available 2004 data), was used to provide the figures on materials disposed of in the EU27, the twenty seven EU countries. The report "Gone to waste" argues that around half of all the key recyclables available in the municipal, commercial and industrial (C&I) waste streams were being sent for disposal.

"Gone to waste: The valuable resources that European countries bury and burn" can be downloaded under foe.co.uk.

Quelle: Friends of the Earth

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