Back in October 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a group of school children that recycling “doesn’t work” and “is not the answer”.
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Is ‘recycling’ just a con?
Is the business of recycling just a fraud? – Vision Group for Sidmouth
“Recycling Is Garbage” – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Does recycling work? – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Certainly the Big Plastic Count isn’t impressed:
THE BIG PLASTIC COUNT INVESTIGATION RESULTS ARE IN
Nearly 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging are thrown away by UK households every year, and just 12% recycled in the UK.
Want to know more? Read the full report
TELL THE UK GOVERNMENT: FIX THE PLASTIC WASTE CRISIS
The Big Plastic Count has revealed that 88% our household waste is being burnt, buried and dumped overseas.
This is a scandal. It’s time the government got serious about tackling the plastic crisis. Join thousands of others and sign the petition now.
With this video released today:
The TRUTH about our recycling – The Big Plastic Count Results – YouTube
The BBC reports:
The Big Plastic Count: Survey shows ‘recycling doesn’t work’
The organisers of Britain’s biggest ever survey of household plastic waste have called for immediate action to tackle what they say are “jaw-dropping” findings.
The Big Plastic Count was run across a week in May and its results show that the average participating household threw away 66 pieces of plastic in a week. Using those figures the organisers, Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic, estimate that the UK throws out nearly 100 billion pieces of plastic a year. The survey involved nearly 100,000 households meticulously documenting the type and amount of plastic they dispose of for seven days. Its organisers say the results prove that recycling alone is not a solution for reducing how much plastic ends up as waste.
“This is a jaw-dropping amount of plastic waste,” Greenpeace UK’s plastics campaigner Chris Thorne said. “Pretending we can sort this with recycling is just industry green-wash. We’re creating a hundred billion bits of waste plastic a year, and recycling is hardly making a dent.” …
“Recycling doesn’t work, we all know it,” Everyday Plastic founder Daniel Webb told BBC News, “If we think things are being recycled we can carry on the way we are. We need to address things further up the chain. By reducing the amount we produce it will reduce the amount that is thrown away.”
It’s a very similar message to that of Prime Minister Boris Johnson back in October 2021 when he told a group of school children that recycling “doesn’t work” and “is not the answer”.
The Big Plastic Count: Survey shows ‘recycling doesn’t work’ – BBC News
As further reported:
Meanwhile, a FOI request has gone into the council, including such questions about how it ‘recycles’ its plastic rubbish:
– What percentage of the plastic is sent to a re-processor?
– What percentage of the plastic which is sent to a re-processor is turned into a) new plastic items and b) pellets?
– What percentage of plastic is sent abroad?
– And what exactly happens to the plastic in the facility abroad?
– What percentage of the plastic a) goes to landfill, b) is incinerated and c) is transported abroad for recycling?