Stats and Facts
- Recycling Information
|
General Recycling
|
- Each UK household produces over 1
tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to
about 31 million tonnes for the UK each
year [source:
Waste Watch]
- Every year, the average dustbin
contains enough unrealised energy for
500 baths, 3500 showers or 5,000 hours
of television. [source:
www.assurre.org]
- On average every person in the UK
throws away their own body weight in
rubbish every 7 weeks [source:
Waste Watch]
- Every 8 months the UK produces
enough waste to fill Lake Windermere
(the largest lake in England) [source:
Waste Watch]
- In less than 2 hours the UK produces
enough waste to fill the Albert Hall
[source:
Waste Watch]
- The cost of managing the municipal
waste produced in England is around £1.6
billion per year [Source: Waste not,
Want not; Cabinet Office, 2002]
|
Metal Recycling
|
Aluminium
|
- If all the aluminium drinks cans
sold in the UK were recycled, there
would be 14 million fewer full dustbins
per year [source:
www.alupro.org.uk ]
- If all of the aluminium cans
recycled in the UK in 1998 were laid end
to end, they would stretch from Land's
End to John O'Groats more than 160 times
[source:www.alupro.org.uk]
- In the UK, 75% of all drinks cans
are made of aluminium. [source: Waste
Watch]
- It’s better news in industry –
larger aluminium products, used in
buildings and vehicles for example, have
a 95% recycling rate. That’s simply
because they’re more valuable. [source:
Aluminium Federation Ltd Fact Sheet 11 -
Aluminium Recycling]
- Amazingly, recycling it requires
only 5% of the energy it takes to make
new aluminium – and produces only 5% of
the CO2 emissions. [source:www.alupro.org.uk]
- Just one recycled aluminium can
saves enough energy to run a television
set for three hours! [source:www.alupro.org.uk]
|
Steel
|
- In industry, steel recycling is
common – ‘home scrap’ generated by the
steel manufacturing process is re-melted
and used over and over again. It never
leaves the mill, refinery or foundry.
[source: Waste Watch]
- In the UK we use around 12.5 billion
steel cans every year, or 600 per
household, but nearly 10 billion of
these still go to landfill. [source:
www.cspr.co.uk]
- In 2005 we recycled around 50% of
steel packaging including over 2.5
billion steel cans! The government
target is to increase that to 54% by
2008. [source:
www.cspr.co.uk]
- Producing steel from recycled
material saves 75% of the energy needed
for steel made from virgin material
[source: www.scrib.org ]
- Every steel can is 100% recyclable.
It can be recycled over and over again
into products like bicycles and of
course new cans [source:
www.recycle-more.co.uk ]
|
Glass Recycling
|
- The largest glass furnaces produce
more than 400 tonnes – that's more than
one million bottles and jars - each day!
[source:
www.ollierecycles.com]
- Glass can be recycled again and
again without losing its clarity or
purity [source:
www.britglass.co.uk ]
- Milk bottles are reused an average
of 13 times before recycling [source:
Surrey County Council]
- The UK has more than 50,000 bottle
banks [source:
www.britglass.co.uk ]
- One bottle bank can hold up to 3,000
bottles before it needs to be emptied.
[source:
www.britglass.co.uk ]
- We use around 2.4 million tonnes of
container glass in the UK every year.
[source:
www.defra.gov.uk]
- In 2005 we recycled approximately
1.2 million tonnes of used glass (known
as ‘cullet’). [source:
www.britglass.co.uk]
- Making glass bottles and jars from
recycled ones saves energy. The energy
saving from recycling one bottle will:
- Power a 100 watt light bulb for
almost an hour
- Power a computer for 20 minutes
- Power a colour TV for 15 minutes
- Power a washing machine for 10
minutes [source:
www.britglass.co.uk ]
- Probably the most important thing
about recycling glass is the energy
saving – when using recycled glass to
make new containers, 315Kg of CO2 is
saved for every tonne of recycled glass
used. [source: "Glass Recycling - Life
Cycle Carbon Dioxide Emissions. A Life
Cycle Analysis Report". Prepared for
British Glass by Enviros Consulting Ltd
November 2003.]
|
Paper Recycling
|
- On average, each person in the UK
uses over 200 kg of paper per year. 66 %
of this is collected for recycling
[source: Confederation of Paper
Industries]
- We use 12.5 million tonnes of paper
and cardboard every year in the UK
[source: Confederation of Paper
Industries]
- Over Christmas as much as 83 km2 of
wrapping paper will end up in UK rubbish
bins, enough to cover an area larger
than Guernsey [source: Waste Watch]
- About one fifth of the contents of
household dustbins consist of paper and
card, of which nearly half is newspapers
and magazines. This is equivalent to
over 4kg of waste paper and card per
household in the UK each week [Source:
Waste Watch]
- Recycled paper made up 80.6% of the
raw materials for UK newspapers by the
end of 2006 [Source: NNIEAG]
|
Textiles Recycling
|
- Present clothes banks are only operating at about 25%
capacity [source: www.e4s.org.uk]
|
Plastic Recycling
|
- Recycling just one plastic bottle
saves enough energy to power a 60W light
bulb for six hours [Source: Recoup]
- It takes just 25 two litre pop
bottles to make one adult size fleece
jacket [Source: WRAP]
- 13 billion plastic carrier bags are
used in the UK each year. [source:
Defra]
|
Green Waste Recycling
|
- Every tonne of biodegradable waste
produces 300-500 cubic metres of
landfill gas [source: Waste Treatment
and Disposal - P T Williams 1998, pp.
240]
- Landfill sites released a
significant percentage of the UK's
methane emissions. For all the details,
visit the Defra webpage on
UK Emissions of Greenhouse Gases.
|