Forum topic: Pinkham Way Alliance publishes its input to waste plan consultation

There are several strands to the PWA submission. One theme the PWA has emphasised for a number of years is that todays linear ‘take, make, dispose’ economic model relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy, and is a model that has physical limits.

Planning for, not just the (finally!) acknowledgement of the Circular Economy needs to be part of the expected future.

In this model waste is a resource with value rather than a liability to be avoided. Long postulated, trends in the non-household waste sectors now suggest it is starting to happen.

At the household waste level we tend to all be more familiar with our own waste and the desire (?) to recycle more. This is a good thing, environmentally and financially, and we remain below target.

Green bins are one place to look at where we could possibly be doing more: consider figures from The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (2012-2014). They suggest that one in nine people (or 805 million people) are chronically undernourished. At the same time, estimates suggest that globally we waste something like 30-50% of food before it ever reaches our stomachs. So as well as the issue of social justice, and the loss of food itself, there is also the accompanying waste of other key resources in the process – water, land, soil and labour not to mention the unnecessary pollution caused by fertilizers, pesticides and greenhouse gas emissions.

Back home and “morally repugnant” is how a recent report by the House of Lords described the estimated 15 million tonnes of food waste that is generated annually in the UK each year.

My maths makes that about 13kg per house equivalent per week (noting much will be wasted before we get to buy it). That’s an awful lot of uneaten food with unnecessary associated environmental costs. Much to do.