Lost in a Wide Open Field

Here in the UK, we manage to produce more than 100 million tonnes of waste every year. In less than two hours, the waste we produce would fill the Albert Hall in London, every eight months it would fill Lake Windermere, the largest and deepest lake in England. The cost of cleaning up all that litter costs taxpayers almost a billion pounds every year.£1billion would fund 38,644 social care workers or pay the running costs of 4,400 libraries. Alternatively, it would enable the NHS to pay for 33,200 nurses or 26,900 paramedics or allow the fire brigade to fund 31,990 extra firefighters each year. The £1billion spent on cleaning our streets could pay for 704,200 elderly household electricity and gas bills for a year or pay for one billion free school dinners – more than enough for every primary school child in England for a year. The money could be invested in the green economy to help support more sustainable and healthy ways of life.  Help make more than 333,000 homes more energy efficient or create more than 193,000 community food growing spaces.