Article for Southampton Sustainability Forum newsletter

Written by Steve Sollitt on Mon 28th Mar 2005

The Liberal Democrats approach to Sustainability is wide spread with a green thread running through our policies. Some of our key policy issues include

1) Ensuring local councils take an active approach to recycling by ensuring that by 2010 60% of all household waste is recycled with more doorstep recycling and composting

2) Promotion of energy from renewable sources, 20% of UK Electricity by this means by 2020

3) Establishing reporting obligations for Government and Business as part of an Environmental Responsibility Act

The way our local councils deal with recycling is a key issue. The Liberal Democrats are the only party on the City Council to support the alternative week collection of rubbish system that would see non-recyclable rubbish be collected only fortnightly. This has been successful in Liberal Democrat controlled Eastleigh, where recycling rates are 30% compare to only 12% in the city. This system substantially increases the percentage of recycling. The introduction of glass collection door to door will help increase the city recycling rate still further.

As a Liberal Democrat I firmly support the importance of such action to ensure that we land fill as little as possible.