UK call for end the "throwaway society"

A new report titled "Growing a circular economy: Ending the throwaway society" has been recently published in England by the Environmental Audit Committee.

The report called for a move away from "the throwaway society", said the chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Joan Walley.

"It's really looking at a whole new way that we do business and how we live our lives, and really accepting that it makes sense from everyone's perspective to have a circular economy where we reuse and recycle and have virtually zero waste."

Local councils should be banned from sending leftover food to landfill sites, said the MPs.

Of the 7.2m tonnes of food thrown out every year, only 400,000 tonnes are collected separately for recycling in the UK, around 6% of the total.

The MPs also want separate food collections for composting or making biogas, renewable energy and fertiliser through anaerobic digestion process.

The report also called for lower VAT on recycled products and longer warranty periods on consumer goods.

It concluded that a "circular economy" approach is needed to save resources as the world's population rises.

The full report is available here