People didn't use to throw things away. They used to mend their clothes and reuse them until they were worn out. When they bought things. they used to carry shopping baskets. But now we don't ruse things well and more rubbish has been produced. We throw away 25 million tons of waste in our dustbins every year. That means one family throws away about one ton of waste.
We have a strong reason for taking it as a serious problem! The fact is that lots of rubbish we throw away can be reused or recycled, The so called rubbish isn't real rubbish.
The UK is one of the worst recyclers in Europe. In the UK they re recycling only about 8% of their everyday waste. That's much less than many other countries. Germany recycles 10%. The government once set a goal of recycling 30% of their everyday waste in 2010. But it failed to reach the goal. As we know. some habits are difficult to change and some collection plans are expensive to carry out.
At present. the movement called "Recycle Now" in the UK tries to change that situation. The top designer Oliver Heath is a strong fan of the movement. He designed the first home built completely of recycled things. including metal cans and glass bottles. "It always makes me excited when I make good use of those recycled things." he said. "Maybe in the near future. you can also make something out of recycled computer printers, plastic bags, bottle tops or CDs" After his story was reported on TV, more and more people began to try his ideas.
Some local governments have set up recycling centres where it's easy for families to recycle their empty bottles and old newspapers. Instead of throwing away the so 一 called rubbish, some families start doing more about it.
With the effort of the whole country, we are happy to see some progress in some places in the UK.
