We need to launch a war on waste
THE need for the future protection of our environment from the effects of plastic and other wastes produced by our “throwaway society” is at last being publicised as it should be and the answers to these self-inflicted problems are fairly obvious. We need a “war on waste”.
We should only produce synthetic materials that we can recycle and we should not allow materials that have an uncertain future to become an unwanted part of our environment. This must be government policy.
Our rivers – the responsibility of Natural Resources Wales – which discharge plastic waste into the oceans, must be fitted with filters to trap and to recover the plastic waste that is carried by the water before it enters the sea.
We should build “barrages” to produce cheap and pollution-free electricity for hundreds of years into the future, and we should do this now. These “barrages” can also provide a “filter” for plastic waste that would control and eventually eliminate the plastic waste presently floating about in our coastal waters.
If this plastic waste were being collected in these ways, as well as being recycled by our local councils, who must do more to recycle every scrap of waste they collect, these valuable materials could be used at a profit with today’s modern recycling methods, and we here in Wales would become world leaders in recycling and environmental protection, and this would be the very best legacy that we could provide for future generations, but we need our leaders to drive these environmental protection and improvement measures forward with vision and with determination.
The private sector will find – or will very soon develop – all of the processes required to recycle and reuse these valuable natural resources.
Large and expensive schemes, such as the “barrages”, could be funded, as were the privatisations, by the people, who will always find the money and will become shareholders in the businesses created, producing energy and recycled material. We can always find money to fight wars. Why not find the money for the war on waste? Clive Payne Blackwood