WASTE MINIMISATION HOME PAGE

Human society continually demands more and more from the environment. Agricultural productivity has had to increase substantially to meet requirements. But this coupled with continual growth in population has lead to increasing pressure on our natural resources. Trends are also pushing towards a 'throw away society' where affluence in many developed nations means we constantly up grade to ensure we have the latest in technology.

The environment is our life support system, our survival relies on it e.g. it provides us with air, water, metals, soil, rock and all living organisms. The state of the earth is influenced by our behaviour we can either nurture or mistreat it.

Did you know:

1. Each year in the UK we use enough paper to cut down a forest the size of Wales?

2. I would only take 9 months to fill Lake Windermere with waste produced by people in the UK!

3. 34,000 tonnes of aluminium packaging foil go into landfill each year!

4. Each year Runnymede households produce almost 30,000 tonnes of waste, that is 0.9 tonnes per household per year.

90% of this waste goes into landfill, rotting waste can -

• pollute ground water supplies;
  
• produce gases responsible for global warming;
• take up valuable space;

BUT……

At least 60% of this waste is RECYCLABLE and 20% in made up of COMPOSTABLE organic material.