Recycling is now a vital part of the way we live

摘要

THIS IS MY LAST OPINION PIECE FOR AWHILE AND, SO IN GOOD journalistic, fashion I would like to look back over the past year. And what a year it has been for waste. It has been dominated by the recession and the speed with which it has hit the industry. Less than 12 months ago, major schemes such as the Riverside Resource Recovery Facility at Belvedere, Kent, were being feted as a sign of how the banks were able to support major waste projects. But within days that confidence evaporated, and now major schemes such as Greater Manchester are struggling to reach financial close even with the support of the European Investment Bank. For those in the materials recovery sector, it has been equally dramatic. Commodity prices were at an all-time high and contractors were offering to collect local authority recyclables for virtually nothing.