Archived press release

Don't Throw It All Away

23 August 2004

Our throw-away society is damaging the environment, wasting precious resources and creating an expensive rubbish mountain, but now a new illustrated guide from Friends of the Earth reveals how we can cut back on the amount we put in the bin.

Don't Throw It All Away [1] provides easy tips and examples of ways to reduce, re-use and recycle, rather than reject the things we think we no longer need. With 25 million tonnes of household waste thrown away in the UK a year - that's half a tonne for every person - and another 375 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste, Friends of the Earth is urging everyone to think twice before creating more rubbish.

More than three quarters of Britain's waste is sent to landfill, creating local pollution, including methane gas which causes global warming and contributes to climate change. Another 9 per cent just goes up in smoke, when it is burnt in incinerators. But up to four fifths of household waste need could be recycled instead.

Friends of the Earth Recycling Campaigner Georgina Bloomfield said:

"So much of our rubbish could be used again and again, saving valuable resources and helping reduce the problems waste creates. Don't Throw It All Away is the essential guide to cutting back on our rubbish by reducing, re-using and recycling, rather than putting things in the bin. We should all take note from the tips it offers and avoid throwing it all away."

Don't Throw It All Away top tips include [2]:

• Use things again and again - and that way you will use less. Send unwanted items to charity shops, car-boot and jumble sales; sell things second hand; or swap with friends and neighbours. Finding a new use for an item you no longer need is the most efficient option as energy and resources don't have to be used to turn it into something else.

• Repair and refurbish to give items a new lease of life. Recover or restore chairs, tables and other furniture; repair clothes, curtains and linen.

• Refill empty jars and bottles and use them again and again. You might not be able to get back money on your empties these days, but you can still re-use glass bottles and jars for homemade jam and lemonade. For every bottle that's refilled 10 times, 10 new bottles don't have to be made.

• Don't accept excess packaging and say no to plastic bags. Take a canvas bag or basket with you to the shops.

• Hire things that you only need for a short time; borrow books from libraries; or share with neighbours and friends.

• Say no to disposable products - from razors and biros to kitchen roll and disposable cameras.

Also featured in the guide are case studies showing just how much waste busters can achieve. One family from Nottinghamshire saved 150 over the course of a year just by cutting back on their waste. A best practice recycling scheme in Daventry, Northants, means the local authority recycles 44 per cent of household waste. And a network of social businesses in Liverpool, London, Lanarkshire and Leicester provides training for people struggling to find work, while also refurbishing electronic appliances which can be sold to low income households. And the guide contains a list of useful sources and contacts for helping people recycle more.

Last year, Friends of the Earth backed the Household Waste Recycling Act which means that every household in England will have two types of recyclable material collected from their doorstep by 2010. But the Government must go further and set binding targets for reducing waste - so that manufacturers, retailers and the packaging industry also join the effort to cut back on the waste we create.

Georgina Bloomfield continued:

"We really need to see action at all levels to cut back on waste.That means everyone, from Government to industry to individuals, needs to look at what they produce and where it ends up. By cutting back on waste at source, we can really start to reduce our rubbish mountain and make better use of our valuable natural resources."

Notes

[1] Don't Throw It All Away is published by Friends of the Earth.

[2] For a full list of Friends of the Earth's 52 tips for cutting waste, see:

www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/news/50_waste_tips.html

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust