Thank you for signing our Petition

Thank you to everyone who signed our Petition. We are delighted with the response, and delighted that West Lothian Council have responded with a prompt reopening of the recycling centres around West Lothian.

After we launched the Petition we were delighted with the support from around the region. Our Facebook post was seen by 6,268 people, with lots of people commenting in support.

On 22 May 2020 we wrote to Graeme Struthers at West Lothian Council asking for confirmation that recycling centres would be given priority when opening up council services.

Shortly after that the West Lothian Council confirmed that recycling centres across West Lothian would be reopening on 1 June 2020.

As Liberal Democrats we believe that we should provide support for innovation to cut energy and fossil fuel use in industrial processes – reducing emissions, cutting dependence on fossil fuel imports and generating jobs and prosperity.

The successful economies of the future will be those which adopt ‘circular economy’ techniques, cutting resource use, waste and pollution by maximising recovery, reuse, recycling and remanufacturing. This will cut costs for consumers and businesses, protect the environment and create new jobs and enterprises. We should move towards a circular economy, including:

Banning non-recyclable single-use plastics and replace them with affordable alternatives, aiming for their complete elimination within three years, as a first step towards ending the ‘throwaway society’ culture and an ambition to end plastic waste exports by 2030.
Benefitting consumers through better product design for repairability, reuse and recycling, including extending the forthcoming EU ‘right to repair’ legislation for consumer goods, so helping small repair businesses and community groups combat ‘planned obsolescence’.
Introducing legally binding targets for reducing the consumption of key natural resources and other incentives for businesses to improve resource efficiency.
Extending deposit return schemes for all food and drink bottles and containers, working with the devolved administrations to ensure consistency across the UK.