War on waste

sir – Unless urgent action is taken, the world is set to generate some

3.4 billion tons of waste in 2050 – 70 per cent more than today.

Global recycling rates remain stubbornly low. Humankind sends 744 million tons of waste to landfill each year. Less than 15 per cent of global waste is recycled while just 5.5 per cent is composted. Vast mountains of rubbish have become a permanent fixture in the West and developing world alike.

Across the world, silo thinking has hampered the response to the challenge of dealing with this waste. Government ministers rarely work with campaigners calling for radical change. Business leaders and activists almost never sit down together to find common solutions to our most profound environmental challenges.

We can’t go on like this. For the sake of present and future generations, we need a radical rethink on products and waste.

This year has been dubbed “the super year” for nature. But the world’s efforts to halt the environmental crisis will come to nothing if we continue to live as if we can generate infinite waste on a planet with finite resources. As world leaders gather in Davos this week, we call on them to put the creation of a real circular economy at the heart of discussions.

Lucy Siegle

Chairman, Real Circularity Coalition Dr Ian Henderson

University of Cambridge Paul Foulkes-arellano

Founder, Sustainable Design Alliance Juliet Gellatley

Director, Viva! Sian Sutherland

Co-founder, A Plastic Planet Lord Fox (Lib Dem)

Lord Dholakia (Lib Dem) and 20 others; see telegraph.co.uk