Waste facts
Recycling aluminium takes only five per cent of the energy needed to make it from the raw material, bauxite. If all the aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK were recycled there would be 14 million fewer dustbins of waste each year.
Every day enough waste to fill Trafalgar Square is produced in the UK. This waste would fill Lake Windermere in one year.
One ton of paper from recycled pulp saves 17 trees, three cubic yards of landfill space, 7,000 gallons of water, 4200 kWh (enough to heat a home for half a year), 390 gallons of oil, and prevents 60 pounds of air pollutants.
Each ton of newspaper recycled saves 4100 kWh of energy.
In one day, the average British household creates 1.74 kg of waste that goes into the rubbish bin. At the end of a year, this rubbish will grow and weigh the same as 11 adults.
Every year the average British family throws away six trees worth of paper.
Five out of every six glass bottles we use every year are thrown straight into the dustbin.
Every tonne of glass recycled saves 1.2 tonnes of raw materials and the equivalent of 30 gallons of oil energy.
The UK gets through around 12 billion cans every year. If placed end to end, they would stretch to the moon and back.
Making compost from kitchen and garden waste can reduce 40 per cent of all refuse going to landfill.
Junk mail can be stopped by calling the Mailing Preference service www.mpsonline.org.uk or call 0845 703 4599.
Households in England produce 25 million tonnes of waste every year. Over half of this consists of garden waste, waste paper and board and kitchen waste.
On average people in the UK now produce about eight times their own body weight in waste a year.
What makes up household waste?
• Garden waste: 20 per cent
• Scrap metal/White goods: five per cent
• Wood: five per cent
• Dense plastic: four per cent
• Plastic film: four per cent
• Textiles: three per cent
• Metal packaging: three per cent
• Nappies: two per cent
• Soil: three per cent
• Paper and Board: 18 per cent
• Kitchen waste: 17 per cent
• General Household Sweepings: nine per cent
• Glass: seven per cent
Around 20 per cent of the food we buy off supermarket shelves goes straight into the bin. This means that every household throws away £424 of wasted food each year.
Over 40 per cent of the waste in our bins is retail packaging - some 4.5 million tonnes of it.
How much does it cost to get rid of our waste? Nationally on average only around £18 per household per year, but most people believe they pay up to £260 for their local waste services.
