Recycling is integral to living a ‘greener’ life, but many people don’t really understand the environmental benefits of separating their rubbish for this purpose. Whilst it is perhaps clear that the less we recycle the more landfill space we use, there are also other environmental plus points of recycling which are less widely appreciated. All of these add up to recycling being a crucial activity in combating climate change.
Below are some interesting facts on recycling which may help you understand more about why this is so important:
- On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks.
- Every UK household produces over one tonne of rubbish every year.
- Every eight months the UK produces enough waste to fill Lake Windermere.
- It is estimated that there are 90 million redundant mobile phones in the UK. You could get up to £180 for your old mobile - Click Here for more information.
- Over Christmas as much as 83km² of wrapping paper will end up in UK rubbish bins, enough to cover an area larger than Guernsey.
- Recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to power a colour TV for 15 minutes.
- Glass will not decompose in landfill but can be recycling without loss of purity.
- 70% less energy is required to recycle paper than making it from raw materials
- The energy saved by recycling one plastic bottle will power a 60W light bulb for six hours.
- Once an aluminium can is recycled it can be part of new can within six weeks.
- If all the aluminium cans sold in the UK were recycled, there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins each year.
- It takes just 25 two litre drink bottles to make one adult size fleece.
- 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
For further information on Recycling click on the links below
