Waste Watch

As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And on the journey to find a more sustainable way of managing our resources, it is looking more like we have taken that first step.

In the Midlands, Staffordshire Moorlands Council is now recycling around 63% of their household waste, with a number of other councils close behind. To put this into context, just a few years ago the UK recycled only nine per cent. It shows that we can recycle at the same levels as our European neighbours, challenging the long-held belief that the British are somehow incapable of making such a change.

There is of course still plenty to do, with many parts of the country lagging far behind. But with Staffordshire Moorlands and others beginning to nudge the upper limit of how much can be recycled, we need to think about what we should be doing next. For those familiar with the waste hierarchy, the answer is clear - produce less waste in the first place.

Being a good recycler does not necessarily mean you produce less waste or are green in other ways. In fact, for some, recycling is seen as a way of absolving one's own environmental guilt arising from other unsustainable behaviours such as excessive consumption. And those councils that have done so well at recycling have not necessarily managed to persuade their residents to cut their waste. Indeed, many rural and semi-rural authorities that feature prominently in the recycling league tables have managed to bump up their recycling rates by collecting substantial amounts of garden waste for composting.

This situation has arisen because, until very recently, the political and legislative drivers in the UK have been firmly behind diverting waste from landfill, which has then been translated into recycling targets for local authorities. Getting people to recycle more is also a very different proposition than getting them to cut their waste. Recycling is an activity that generally takes place at home, is relatively simple, and happens once the item in question is already waste - in other words, it is an end-of- pipe solution.

In contrast, the messages and methods that encourage people to reduce waste depend on what exactly you are talking about. For example, reducing food waste involves getting people to shop wisely, use leftovers and store food correctly. Whereas encouraging people to reduce other sorts of waste such as furniture, nappies, garden waste or clothes involves talking to entirely different groups of people and saying totally different things. So there are a whole set of new challenges out there for local authorities and the wider community.

It is also an issue taxing the rest of Europe, illustrated by the fact that wealthier European countries tend to recycle more and landfill less, but also produce more waste. Denmark, for example, has been praised for its high recycling rates, but is producing around two-and-a-half times as much waste as recent accession states such as Romania and Slovakia. Assuming that the EU accession countries become wealthier over the coming years and the trend holds, it will be a problem that will only get worse.

And this gets to the heart of the issue. Recycling is a great start but we need to break the link between material affluence and waste, something not yet seriously addressed across the continent. The first pan-European Waste Prevention week, being organised in November, is a valuable and long overdue first step in raising awareness. But ultimately it is about our fundamental values.

We need to examine our society and decide whether ever-rising affluence should be our goal. Research has suggested that beyond a basic level, increases in wealth and consumption do not bring commensurate increases in happiness and wellbeing. Indeed, the more wealth we have, the less likely we are to believe that we have enough to meet our needs. Consequently, we throw away more and are less happy at the same time.

If we are to be honest, the real challenge is to understand what motivates people to consume. Perhaps then we will be able to understand how to stop people wanting to buy and therefore waste more.

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