The Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP) published a 5-year plan, which lays out how the charity will work with businesses, governments and consumers to reshape the way we use resources.
Titled, “Resource Revolution: Creating the Future,” the plan is designed to achieve a more sustainable and resource-efficient economy for generations to come through reinventing, rethinking and redefining, according to WRAP.
“We have a clear five year plan, of where and why we need to take action to create a sustainable future,” said WRAP CEO Dr. Liz Goodwin OBE. “There is still much to do. WRAP will continue to operate in the way it always has – starting from the evidence and then working in collaboration, at the interface between business, governments and consumers to help facilitate and catalyze the change we require to bring about the resource revolution.”
WRAP’s five-year plan will focus on three key areas, clothing and textiles, food and drink and electronics. According to the charity, the combined impact of these categories accounts for 25 percent of the UK’s carbon footprint, 80 percent of the UK’s water footprint and 40 percent of the UK’s household waste.
The UK’s consumption of clothing and textiles accounts for 38 million tons of annual global carbon equivalent emissions, 200,000 liters (about 52,834 gallons) of water consumption per household every year and 1.8 million tons of waste production.
In a effort to reduce those effects WRAP wants to reinvent how clothes are designed and produced to reduce carbon, water and waste, rethinking how we value clothing, encouraging people to use clothing longer and redefining what is possible by maximizing the benefits from re-using and recycling.
By the end of 2020, WRAP hopes to reduce the carbon and water footprint, as well as the amount of waste to landfill by 15 percent with a 3.5% reduction in waste compiled over the entire product lifecycle.
The charity plans to work with partners to create change in other countries as well, specifically those supplying the UK.
“I am extremely proud of what WRAP has achieved over the last 15 years and look forward to making an even bigger difference here in the UK and around the world over the next five years,” Goodwin added.