The principles of sustainability agenda requires Governments, industry and the public to make efforts to reduce the amount of wastes by:

• encouraging recycling;
• reducing wasteful packaging of products;
• introducing products that are more environmentally sound.

At the moment, the amount of waste produced in the developed world is not sustainable. For example, 99% of the materials used to make goods in the USA becomes waste within 6 weeks of sale, including the goods themselves. Most waste is buried underground in landfill sites; in the UK only around 7% of household waste is recycled.

It is estimated that every year in the UK each person throws out the equivalent of:

• Over 100 glass bottles;
• 70 plastic bottles;
• 300 cans;
• 150 newspapers and magazines;
• Over 60 kg of food scraps and kitchen waste.

All of these types of waste can be easily recycled, which saves resources and energy.