Tonight: Throwaway Britain

Britain is becoming an increasingly disposable society. From fashion to food, it seems everything has a shelf life, and the more we buy, the more gets disposed of. Less than half of what we throw away ends up being recycled or re-used. In some parts of the country recycling rates are as low as 14 per cent, and more than a third of our rubbish ends up in landfill. We are told that this is unsustainable. In this special one-hour edition, Jonathan Maitland looks at what happens to our household rubbish and examines ways in which we can all reduce the amount of waste we generate.