Article
Waste mountains
If everyone in the world created as much waste as avarage person in the UK, we would need eight worlds to support us. In the fact every one of use throws away the equivalent of our own body weight in less than two months. Along with waste from industry, thats's enough to fill the Albert Hall in London every two hours. And amount we produce is growing and growing. Rubbish removal in London and elsewere become growing problem. So what happens to these mouintains of waste?
Most of it unfortunately is not recycled, but goes into huge holes in the ground - lanfill sites- but one problem is that we are running out of space for dumping our rubbish. Another is that these giant pits can be polluting. In fact methane, produced from rotting waste is about 24 times more powerful than CO2 as greenhouse gas. There are strict limits on the amount of leakage to air or water permitted, but it is still a problem.
At the moment just under 10 per cent of our waste is burnt. This is contoversial. Scientics are concerned , not only about the toxic emmisions from burnt rubbish, but also that large-scale incinerators act as a disincntive to reducing and recycling waste and many people living near proposed new incinerator sites seem to share these concerns.
Julia Hailes forward by Rosie Boycott "The new green consumer guide. You can make a difference"
