This year we have become accustomed to looking at the UK’s medal table standings, following the outstanding successes of the London Olympics and Paralympics games. But last month we learned of the country’s performance in a different kind of league, when the European Commission ranked the UK eighth in terms of municipal waste management.
Having graded 18 EU member states on factors including waste recycling, the pricing of waste disposal and infringements on European legislation, the EC then awarded green, orange and red flags according to performance.
Reportedly scoring strongly in terms of the amount of municipal waste recycled and disposed, plus the prevention of waste in the first place, the UK only received a red flag for not having a ban or restrictions on sending waste to landfill.
Room for improvement is also evident in ‘orange’ areas such as energy from waste recovery, landfill disposal charges and not having a pay-as-you-throw scheme.
There is clearly still some way to go until the UK can boast about its approach to municipal waste management, and we should look to higher ranked nations such as Austria, Belgium and Denmark for inspiration. Yet we should take the positives from this medal table and seek to build upon the strengths that we have accumulated in recent years. Let’s give the nation another reason to be proud.
Riverside Waste Machinery’s specialist consultants are passionate about the UK’s waste agenda. If you would like to speak to a member of the team about developing a more responsible approach to handling your packaging waste materials, please call 01423 325038 or complete our no obligation enquiry form today.
