 Tons of plastic is dumped across the world every single day. We can't keep abusing our planet like this, but we are doing something about it. From the Clean Air Act in 1956 to Margaret Thatcher's landmark address to the United Nations in 1989, where she warned of irretrievable damage to our atmosphere, to our oceans, to the planet itself. Conservatives in government have a record of tackling the threats that face our planet. At the end of last year we launched the new resources and waste strategy to make sure that we as a nation play our part. I'm here at a recycling centre in London to talk to an expert. So Richard, can you quickly explain what actually happens here? Well this is London's largest and newest urban mine where we collect materials from people's houses that we turn back into raw materials to make new products. Recycling. And what can people at home do to try and improve recycling rates? Well recycling is really worthwhile for the householder. If you read the instructions on packaging and you read the leaflet from your local authority it tells you what to do and that will save council tax and it will save the planet at the same time. What should the government be doing now? Well the government has brought together a number of things such as deposit return schemes, packaging taxes into a new policy called the Waste and Resources Strategy which is going to change the way we manage waste in the UK for the better. Our new resources and waste strategy will cut our reliance on single-use plastics, end confusion over household recycling and tackle the problem of excess packaging by making polluters pay. Unnecessary packaging covers so much of what we buy. These plastics are used for such a short period of time yet last in the environment for centuries. We need to increase how much we recycle and improve how we do it. We've previously failed to see the true environmental costs of these products and now we're paying the price. The new strategy will make producers pay the full cost of disposing or recycling their packaging and thus make them fully accountable for any excessive waste. With businesses having to pay higher fees if their products are harder to reuse or recycle it will give them a powerful incentive to produce more sustainable designs. The money raised will go to councils to help them improve waste and recycling systems. With consistent labelling it will make it easier for people to know exactly what they should put in which bin. The strategy builds on existing government work to reduce excessive waste including a world-leading ban on microbeads, the 5p plastic bag charge which has helped take 15 billion single-use plastic bags out of circulation and a 15 million pound pilot scheme to help reduce food waste. As a nation we need to come together and stop being a throwaway society so that we can leave our planet in a better state for future generations.