Dirty Britain – ‘The unsung heroes’
28th May 2012
Watching Dirty Britain on ITV1 during the last couple of weeks really opens your eyes to Britain’s unsung heroes and another world of filth and grime which we – the public – generate, yet are often happy to ignore. What struck me was the professionalism and dedication of all those featured, especially those who carry out the most stomach-churning of jobs.
I was obviously very proud to see members of SITA UK from our landfill site at Packington in the West Midlands feature on the programme. Hopefully, their appearance helped highlight the complexity of their operations, and their consciousness of the loss of resources – in the form of waste generated by the public and businesses alike – highlighted the journey of transformation the waste industry finds itself on.
As landfill (the waste treatment infrastructure of the past) fills up, we need now to plan for a more resource-efficient future where we begin to divert waste away from landfills like Packington to new treatment facilities designed to recycle valuable materials and create much needed energy.
SITA UK itself is on this journey and has a clear development plan to build new infrastructure which will divert materials away from landfill. However, we owe a debt of gratitude to the landfills of the UK and the men and women that operate them – they have, after all, served this country with cost-effective and professional waste treatment over the years and allowed the public to live in a sanitary manner.
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