One Wales, One Planet

The need for change

Wales consumes the equivalent of three planets worth of resources. We have to start living within our means.*

To help achieve this, Wales aims to become a zero waste nation by 2050.

It starts with designing products and services that have waste prevention in mind. If we reduce the waste we create, we reduce our use of natural resources.

The Welsh Assembly Government has also set a target for Wales to recycle 70 percent of its waste by 2025.  From private industry to householders, every sector in Wales now has a duty to help Wales become a high recycling nation.  Every council in Wales is committed to reaching this ambitious target.  They will need your help to achieve it.

We then need to find new ways of treating the waste that is left over once we have reduced and recycled as much as we can. 

Landfill is no longer an option.  Space is running out and there is little chance of new sites being built.  It creates harmful gasses that pollute the atmosphere and wastes natural resources. It is increasingly expensive and will soon be subject to heavy financial fines.  As a significant contributor to climate change, landfill comes at a high cost for both our economy and our environment.

By building new facilities to treat our left over waste, we can recover this resource and use it to generate heat and electricity.  We can use food and non-recyclable waste as a rich source of renewable energy. 

We can all reduce our waste and help Wales to become a high recycling nation.  Many of the new technologies will help us to meet the 70 percent recycling target.  The amount of waste we can treat in energy from waste facilities has been limited to 30 percent.

The clock is ticking.  Wales has about 8 years of landfill space remaining.  We have to develop new technologies that can treat the waste that we can’t recycle.

*For more information on one planet living and zero waste Wales see the Welsh Assembly Government’s "Towards Zero Waste, One Wales: One Planet".