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Call me suspicious minded, but we all know how governments behave and I'm curious as to why you think we have currently this drive to "Go Green" and save the environment.

It could be of course that it has been realised that we need to save the planet and the politicians are driving reforms forwards to save the future for us all.

But they never behave like this do they? There is always something else going on, some ulterior motive. Or, more normally, total baffling incompetence and a system that careers onwards headless and without check.

So what is different about the Climate Change issue? What is going on?

Any ideas?

It may just be possible that the economic argument for doing something about climate change has gotten so strong that the government have lumbered into action! I suspect that is the ulterior motive, as Gordon Brown's already mentioned he wants us to be leaders in the brave new "green economy" world. Western governments need to move towards energy independence now, before Russia and the OPEC cartels get to hold us to ransom when the shit hits the fan with oil and gas reserves dwindling.

We will also be developing new technology which can then be sold (at a premium) to other nations. It is a new industry and we need to make sure we are not getting left behind. Especially since the continent is so far ahead of us already. We are monsters in an old industrial world and need to evolve to stay in touch.

The governments green policy is all about money. They need the economy to adapt to the new industry so they don't have to shore up the economy. They also probably want to avoid having massive clean up bills from the ever increasing mountain of rubbish and even more probably they don't want to build any new power stations after the next disastrous nuclear ones.

The one major issue for the economy, which is kind of linked to the environmental issues as well, is population. We have no sustainable way to lower it because of how our pension systems work, but doing so would be one of the most effective ways of cutting emissions and other harmful stuff.

The landfill stories that have been apearing recently do worry me. Most of them seem to be saying we'll run out of current landfill space in a few years. Time to bin less stuff, I feel.

The really silly stuff is when we discover that all the carefully collected waste, segregated as per EU instructions, gets to the depot it's all chucked together into landfill...

But the EU only say it has to be collected separately....

Do you have a source for that, John? I find it a little hard to believe, given that the EU have probably also set recycling targets as well. Either that or some of the waste simply can't be recycled so has to be dumped?

There was a source, but now I'm quoting from memory. Wherever it was happening, it caused a bit of a stir, as you can imagine.

It could be that the regulations cover "separating out waste into differnet categories to be sent for recycling" rather than "recycling", which would of course be a huge potential loophole.

I don't know it to be a fact, but it would not surprise me. Nothing would surprise me when it comes to government, central or local.

I'd be very happy to be proved wrong.

Found an article that looks like it: "Recycled" waste dumped in landfill.

Well remembered John! It does raise the point that it's important for the Councils to be able to confirm the waste is being recycled by having proper audit procedures, otherwise public confidence goes down the pan.

Looks like the sorting centres weren't doing their sorting properly and causing problems for contractors. An important point is that this only affects "mixed collection" areas where you don't have to sort the stuff yourself.