Recycling reduces the need to consume natural resources and so helps to protect natural wildlife habitats for the future. This also reduces the need for mining, logging and refining raw materials, all of which create substantial air and water pollution.

Recycling saves energy, as using recycled materials to manufacture new products uses far less energy than producing from raw materials. These energy savings are far greater than the energy used in collecting and transporting materials for recycling.

Recycling reduces the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites, which produce a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Methane is a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

By saving energy and reducing methane emissions, current UK recycling is estimated to reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.

We also avoid the costs of landfill, which are increasing rapidly each year. Landfill costs in Somerset are now over £68 per tonne and there is a landfill tax escalator which is increasing by £8 per tonne each year. This tax is currently £48 per tonne and the Government has announced it will increase to at least £72 per tonne. It is designed to encourage alternative forms of waste management, such as recycling, due to the environmental damage caused by landfill.

In addition, local authorities have allowances for the amount of biodegradable waste that can be sent to landfill. These allowances decrease each year and by 2020 will be 65% less than the amount of biodegradable waste send for disposal in 1995. There are fines if these allowances are exceeded.