Domestic, municipal and industrial refuse in the UK

The most important single step in effective waste-management is to avoid mixing the different components of rubbish at the sources of its generation. Once collected, the wise treatment of refuse would result in (i) recycling re-usable artefacts and materials, (ii) conserving fossil-fuel reserves and (iii) protecting the environment from degradation. In particular, because glass and metals need high energy-inputs per tonne to produce, they should be recycled wherever and whenever economically feasible. Annually, in England and Wales, more than 29 x 106 tonnes of municipal refuse is generated and about 10 per cent of this is incinerated. Even less is converted into useful energy, but, nevertheless even this small fraction makes a worthwhile contribution to the UK economy. So a review of the historical trends concerning the composition of UK refuse is presented, together with an outline of its rôle in the materials' cycle and the means of dealing with it. Possibly this will encourage better use to be made of the components of refuse, which is a major resource. We can no longer refuse to acknowledge the importance of refuse!