UK Businesses Wasting $5 Billion Annually Ignoring Energy Efficiency - FT

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Businesses are wasting more than £3bn a year in failing to put in place energy efficiency measures to control their use of electricity, water and materials.

The Environment Agency said yesterday that although businesses had helped to make rivers and bathing waters cleaner than they had been since records began, the opportunities for cutting costs by eliminating waste and inefficiency were still being ignored. Elliot Morley, environment minister, said: "There is still more businesses can do ."

The government has tried to encourage a more efficient use of resources through a variety of schemes aimed at educating businesses in how to operate more efficiently, and produce less waste.

Flytipping - the illegal dumping of rubbish - was also increasing, creating environmental hazards, said the agency in its report on the state of the environment. The UK was also failing to recycle as much of its rubbish as other countries, the report noted. More than a quarter of waste is still sent to landfill, despite increasing landfill costs."

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http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f0a0f78a-d94b-11d9-8403-00000e2511c8.html