Climate change: Prince launches ‘Waste to Wealth’ summit

The ‘Waste to Wealth’ summit was held in London today, bringing together over 200 leaders including the Prince of Wales and the Environment Secretary Michael Gove along with members of government, businesses, volunteers and university groups from all over the country. The summit targeted reducing avoidable waste by 2030 and to double the nation’s resource productivity.

According to BBC News One of the most remarkable events of the summit was a speech given by Prince Charles in which he stated:”Making goods (like polyester duvets) uses energy and releases greenhouses gases – and the Prince and the politician both say we can’t tackle climate change unless we use materials more intelligently.”

The University of Brighton’s Waste House, built from waste material and using innovative waste materials as insulation has been further acknowledged in the article.

“The Waste House is almost entirely made from thrown away materials most of which were heading for landfill or incineration. Materials used in the construction include toothbrushes, denim jeans, dvd cases, floppy discs, carpet tiles and construction waste. These materials have now been joined by used duvets from The University of Brighton’s halls of residence which are being used as insulation. Whilst oyster shells from the critically acclaimed English’s oyster bar have been mixed with waste aggregates from a neighbouring building site (Preston Barracks) to form wall tiles.”

On the subject of managing resources and reducing avoidable waste, Duncan Baker-Brown – Director of BBM and the project architect of the Waste House, told BBC News: “You pay 20% VAT to refurbish a building, but zero VAT to demolish and rebuild. There is a tax incentive to knock buildings down, which is frankly insane.”

The full article can be found here.