Welcome the Take it
Back microsite. We are a group of people whose aim it
is to reduce the amount of unnecessary packaging foisted
on us by supermarkets - through campaigning, direct
action and other events. Our aim is to make supermarkets
realise we don’t need and don’t want non-recyclable
packaging and want all packaging kept to a minimum.
To help you we have a standard letter available for
you to download here
and send to your local supermarket encouraging them
to consider the use of excessive packaging and its environmental
effects.
Shocking Facts!
Did you know-in the UK
we throw away 434 million tonnes of rubbish each year-
that’s our own body weight every 6 weeks!
Most of this waste comes
from retail packaging with supermarkets the main culprits,
including giving away the equivalent of 290 carrier bags
a year to everyone of us. It’s what they believe
we want! And in Brighton & Hove the council say they
can’t recycle all the plastic bags we give them-
or other packaging, like tetra packs.
In fact, reducing waste
is far preferable to re-cycling. Last year UK companies
illegally foisted our recyclables on developing countries
[Guardian 21.12.2005].
Our local target for
recycling is 30% of household waste in 2005/6- less than
St Edmondsbury, Suffolk where 50% was recycled last year.
And, even when we do recycle this uses energy and resources
we really need to conserve and adds even more air pollutants
from road transport. In this city sorting, sifting and
shifting all our rubbish will mean more than 400 HGVs
across town everyday.
And what about the rest
of our rubbish? 33 of the largest vehicles on European
roads will bring 1000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish
a day to be incinerated in Newhaven, creating toxic fumes
and toxic ash that will never go away, polluting the whole
of the south coast area.
The National
Waste Strategy says that the key is REDUCING waste-
not just recycling and re-using.
Some supermarkets have
agreed to reduce waste by 2010 and have signed up to the
Courtauld
Agreement but landfill sites will fill up by 2008.
But this is too late! Also,
can we really rely on big business to reduce waste for
us whilst there is money to be made from it?
Brighton & Hove Council
don’t think so – they are planning for increasing
waste above national average levels until 2015, at least.
We can do better than this…………!
We can REDUCE waste.
We can ask supermarkets
to give us less non-recyclable packaging
