We need to make 50% less waste. That is the headline driving the UK’s new plan to slash the rubbish we throw away and force a shift to a cleaner circular economy.
By 2042 residual waste must drop to 287kg per person which is roughly half the 2019 level. The first checkpoint lands in 2030 when residual waste must fall to 437kg per person and total municipal waste to 333kg.
Hitting that means cutting plastics paper glass metal and food waste at scale. The plan leans heavily on reforms already rolling out.
Simpler recycling will standardise collections nationwide so every home gets consistent separate food waste paper and packaging pick-ups.
The Deposit Return Scheme will keep bottles and cans out of bins and off the streets. Extended producer responsibility will make brands pay for the packaging they create so the pressure shifts to design less waste and recycle more.
If these measures deliver as expected England could cut residual waste per person by about 23% by 2029 which would take the country almost halfway to the 2042 goal.
The rest depends on behaviour and systems.
More repair and reuse. More recycling infrastructure. Less single-use everything.
The plan pushes councils to modernise collections and businesses to redesign products while households get clearer rules on what goes where.
Waste has to fall fast and the country cannot reach net zero without shrinking the mountains of rubbish it produces every year.
Labour sets 2042 as target to cut waste by half appeared first on Energy Live News.