Some of the most exciting innovations in recent technology have been related to waste management and recycling. What once seemed like something out of Back to the Future is now reality as plants are able to convert waste into energy that not only keeps waste from landfills but also offers fuel that is significantly cleaner than traditional fossil fuels. This energy from waste technology is just one of the ways in which the United Kingdom is trying to change its approach to handling waste. Currently the UK is behind many of its own recycling and landfill objectives and most think they will also fail to meet the standards outlined by the European Union. The EU laid out specific guidelines for all of its members countries to reduce the size of their landfills over periods of five, ten, and twenty years.
The newest campaign, which was launched by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, asks customers in the United Kingdom to re-think their approach when it comes to waste management. The new campaign revisits the three R’s of Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, and asks consumes to take innovative approaches on everything from recycled furniture, which may be used to create electricity, all the way to food waste, which can also be used to generate electricity.
Most recently companies like Thames Water announced that they were able to eliminate their carbon footprint by creating energy from human feces. These types of innovations are exactly what the government of the UK is looking for in their new approach to waste.
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