As always, the New Year has brought with it not only new hope and new goals for the world, but also new waste as people give gifts and throw parties. This time of year bring a lot of food waste which has drawn more attention to the issue, especially after high profile politicians like Gordon Brown encouraged citizens to be less wasteful with food. As part of the controversial zero waste policy being promoted by Environment Minister Hilary Benn, citizens in the United Kingdom could be fined up to one thousand pounds for putting food scraps and other recyclables into their dustbin. The zero waste policy aims to cut greenhouse emissions in the United Kingdom by forcing residents to recycle anything that is possible to be recycled, especially food items.
Some residents are concerned that the new laws will lead to inconvenience as well as a large number of bins. The amount of recycled material will be so large that some households will need at least five bins to hold it all. Currently the United Kingdom sends over sixty million tonnes of rubbish into landfills which makes it one of the worst violators in all of Europe. The United Kingdom sends over half of all if its rubbish to landfills and the new zero waste policy hopes to drive that number down significantly.
Food waste is particularly harmful because as it starts to break down it releases methane into the soil which can be very harmful to the environment once it gets into the air.
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