Cruelty Free Beauty

Eco Living

Vegan Recipes

Popular recipes

News

Plastic Petition pushes for greater transparency in UK recycling system

Plastic Petition pushes for greater transparency in UK recycling system

British health brand BetterYou is campaigning for positive environmental change, and you could be part of it!

The company recently launched its Plastic Petition, demanding a national and unified programme for waste plastic collection and recycling across England.

According to a 2019 YouGov poll, ‘confusing rules’ are one of the biggest issues that keep Brits from recycling effectively, with one in 20 saying they won’t recycle anymore until they’re confident that items they send for recycling will be properly recycled, rather than sent to landfill.

What’s more, BBC News reported last year that in the 12 months to March 2019, 50 councils across the country incinerated more than half of the household rubbish that they collected, including paper and plastic. Unsurprisingly, it’s causing increasing concerns for Brits who are trying to take responsibility for their recycling.

It’s worrying statistics like these that have led BetterYou to push for more transparency, urging the government to improve its policies in a bid to create an effective recycling lifecycle.

“There is no synergy, no clarity and certainly no universal performance standard to be measured by within the UK’s current recycling policy,” BetterYou founder and managing director, Andrew Thomas, said. “Many of us diligently separate our waste plastics, yet this very waste may still be contributing to an environmental disaster on a scale never before seen.

“I believe that the incomprehensible and poorly communicated ways in which recycling is collected across the UK has unsurprisingly reduced the public’s compliance to plastic recycling – if you make a process confusing enough, people will eventually stop doing it.

“Our government is not acting decisively enough to ensure more of our waste plastic is collected and recycled, so we must insist that local and national government work together towards a more effective and self-sustaining plastic recycling programme to reduce and start to repair our environmental impact.

“That’s why our newly launched Plastic Petition is so important. The petition demands a single and universally adopted recycling programme which every local authority should sign up to; a programme which is standardised, independently monitored, and publicly reviewed annually. It proposes that all local authorities are governed, monitored, and reviewed equally, upholding an agreed best practice programme for collection and recycling.”

To find out more about BetterYou’s environmental initiatives, visit betteryou.com/better-planet-project or click here to sign the petition.

Want to read more like this? Sign up to our weekly newsletter to receive the latest updates on sustainability, planet-friendly recipes, cruelty-free beauty and more straight to your inbox.

More from Vegetarian blog

8 Movie Snacks to Make this Halloween
8 Movie Snacks to Make this Halloween

The best way to face your fears is to eat them… so they say. It’s Halloween and that means one thing – pumpkin carving for all and a lot of leftovers to make delicious veggie meals out of. If you're planning an evening of freaky films then we’ve compiled a list of the perfect spooky treats to devour alongside (they’re to die for).

7 Honey Recipes for National Honey Week
7 Honey Recipes for National Honey Week

The lazy days and beautiful botanicals of summer are well and truly behind us, but just because the bees aren’t buzzing around us anymore doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the fruits of their labour - it is National Honey Week after all.

6 Ways With… Rainbow Chard
6 Ways With… Rainbow Chard

In a world where kale is hailed as an all-conquering superfood, what has happened to the rest of the seasonal veg? Let's shine a light on the other delights that are at their best this time of year, enter rainbow chard...