The European Union is making goals for companies to recycle between 25%-45% of all packaging. This is part of the Producer Responsibility Regulations.

The draft EU Directive "Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment" (WEEE) goes further and establishes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)which places legal and financial responsibility on the producers of electronic and electrical goods throughout the life cycle of their products - from design through the end-of-life.

Click to find reaction to WEEE

http://www.svtc.org/

Waste created by people may take hundreds of years to break down, some may be persistent.

In addition to waste created by industries each person in developed countries currently throws away approximately 45kg of waste per month. This equates to about 1 tonne per family a year - and it all has to go somewhere.