'Start thinking of waste differently,' said Environment Secretary Hilary Benn

Speaking at the launch of Beyond Carbon, a report from green business lobby group the Aldersgate Group, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said, "We've reached a point in human development where the thing we call waste needs to be seen for what it really is - it's a resource and we ought to describe it as such. For the past 150 years, with all the benefit that economic development has brought us, we've been running an unwinnable race against the planet. We know that the time has come to stop treating the gifts that the Earth gives us as if they were infinite and start using them in a very different way." He continued to say that burying leftovers in a hole in the ground and forgetting about it is no longer an option.

Full speech on edie.net