Belgium has the highest recycling rate in Europe and it is no fluke. The country has had a waste decree in place since 1981 which has set targets for reducing the amount of waste in households whether it be through home composting or just general recycling, these were so successful that their original goals were exceeded and more had to be set.
We head across the pond to Canada for this weeks Recycling Around the World, like most countries their landfill is almost at capacity and Canadas landfills generate 25% of their methane emmissions. A recycling scheme that was set up in the 90's allowed Canadians access to recycling facilities and this has gone strength to strength with more and more homes gaining access to these facilities.
In Denmark it is illegal to send waste to landfill when it is suitable for incineration, when the waste is incinerated it is used to generate electricity and heat, which makes sense why there is a law in place. Another country which has a deposit return scheme which prevents 390,000 tonnes of waste ending up in landfill, does this not prove that a scheme works.
Recent recycling statistics have stated that Estonia is one of the best performing countries with it comes to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill, per person, Estonia only generates around 279kg of waste per person with 40% of that waste being recycled.
More and more emphasis is being placed on recycling packaging around the world, Finland has a record of being able to recycle more than half of its packaging and they can boast that they exceed all of their recycling targets on glass, cartons and metals.
The next installment of our popular recycling series looks at Guatemala, recycling has vastly increased, mainly down to the story of Ecoplast. Ecoplast is from the owners of a small plastic packaging company which has gone from one recycling machine to a 24/7 job which now employs 35 people on a full time basis.
Holland have a successful recycling scheme in place, only a small fraction of waste is sent to landfill with 64% of waste is recycled. 90% of Dutch people separate their waste and they say that they take measures to help save energy where it is neede, such as turning the tap off whilst brushing their teeth. But why are they successful?
Recycling around the world this week looks at India. India have no formal waste collection service but have many small waste collectors who trade their rubbish for other items. Citizens of India only generate half a kilo of waste is generated per person but the size of the population of India means waste adds up to huge volumes.
Recycling is important in Japan, with a large population and little lady, there isn't much option so there is no wonder that Japan currently recycles around 50% of waste, and one of the ways this is achieved is making laws regarding recycling. Tourists are not exempt from the recycling laws.
Kenya has an ever increasing population with the capital alone creating over 3000 tonnes of waste, with only 1/4 of this making it to the Cities only rubbish dump, most of the rubbish ends up strewn across the country in sewers and streets. To address this, the city council teamed up with the UN environmental programme to help develop a waste management plan and to help create a plan for recycling.