Weird and wonderful waste and recycling facts
- The UK’s rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in less than 2 hours.
- Every year households throw away the equivalent of 3 ½ million double decker buses.
- Every year, the average dustbin contains enough unrealised energy for 500 baths, 3500 showers or 5,000 hours of television
- Glass – on average every family in the UK consumes around 330 glass bottles and jars a year. Recycling just two of them saves enough energy to boil water for 5 cups of tea!!!
- Plastic – every year, an estimated 17½ million plastic bags are given away by supermarkets, equivalent to over 290 bags for every person in the UK.
- Aluminium cans - recycling one uses only 5% of the energy used to make one out of natural resources and could save enough energy to run a television for 3 hours!
- Steel - producing steel from recycled material saves 75% of the energy needed for steel made from virgin material.
- Paper - on average, each person in the UK uses over 200 kg of paper per year. 66 % of this is collected for recycling.
- Textiles - present clothes banks are only operating at about 25% capacity.
|
|
