The United Kingdom has come under increases scrutiny over the last year for its failure to live up to many of the recycling and waste management goals outlined by the European Union. The EU set specific directives for each of its member nations to recycle more and to reduce the amount of waste that is produced. When it was discovered that he United Kingdom ranked near the bottom of most lists when it came to recycling and waste management the government started putting pressure on local authorities to come up with new schemes to encourage their residents to recycle more. This has led to recycling rates in the United Kingdom going up dramatically, as well as a renewed interest in issues of the environment.
Recently in Waltham Forest residents took part in an innovative scheme which aimed to reduce the amount of plastic bags that are thrown into landfills. Plastic bags are some of the more problematic items for environmentalists because many of them cannot be recycled and end up being disposed of in landfills where they will remain for thousands of years. This led to Waltham Forest to launch a two week bag amnesty in which residents could turn in plastic bags in exchange for less harmful and reusable cloth bags. For each bag that they turned in they received a cloth bag, which they can then use to replace the dozens of plastic bags that people usually accumulate while shopping. Over twelve thousand plastic carrier bags were recovered as part of the scheme.
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