Environmental Information
Wacky waste facts
Have you ever thought about how much rubbish you and your family throw away every
week? Or why we need to stop throwing so much of it away? This page is full
of amazing waste facts. Did you know that...
General garbage
The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year. This
rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London in less
than 2 hours.
Every year UK households throw away the equivalent of 3 ½ million double-decker
buses (almost 30 million tonnes), a queue of which would stretch from London
to Sydney(Australia) and back.
On average, each person in the UK, throws away seven times their body weight
(about 500kg) in rubbish every year.
Glass
On average, every family in the UK consumes around 330 glass bottles and
jars a year. (British Glass)
It is not known how long glass takes to break down but it is so long that
glass made in the Middle East over 3000 years ago can still be found today.
Recycling two bottles saves enough energy to boil water for five cups of
tea.
Fantastic plastic
Every year, an estimated 17½ billion plastic bags are given away
by supermarkets. This is equivalent to over 290 bags for every person in
the UK. 17½ billion
seconds ago it was the year 1449.
We produce and use 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago!
Oil
1 litre of oil can pollute 1 million litres of fresh drinking water (Scottish
Oil Care Campaign).
Waste oil from nearly 3 million car oil changes in Britain is not collected.
If collected properly, this could meet the annual energy needs of 1.5 million
people. (Scottish Oil Care Campaign)
Preposterous paper
About one fifth of the contents of household dustbins consists of paper
and card, of which half is newspapers and magazines.This is equivalent
to over 4kg of waste paper per household in the UK each week.
Persistent packaging
In 2001 UK households produced the equivalent weight of 245 jumbo jets
per week in packaging waste.
Every year each person produces 4 times as much packaging waste as their
luggage allowance on a jumbo jet.
Revolting rubbish
Babies' nappies makes up about 2 % of the average household rubbish. This
is equivalent to the weight of nearly 70,000 double decker buses every
year. If lined up front to end, the buses would stretch from London to
Edinburgh
Information from www.wasteonline.org.uk (May
2007)
Three R's
The Three Rs represents the 'Waste Hierarchy', which lists the best ways
of managing waste from the most to the least desirable.
Reduce: not producing waste in the first place is the
obvious solution and we can all play a part by thinking about how and
why we produce waste.
Reuse: many of the things we currently throw away could
be reused again and again with just a little thought and imagination
Recycle: waste products can be turned back into the
raw materials they came from and then used to make new products. This
helps to conserve natural resources and energy
Once all of us have done our best to reduce, reuse and recycle there
will always be some materials left over and these have to be disposed of.
Most our waste goes to landfills where it is buried and
decomposes slowly releasing gases and liquids. In some other European countries
waste undergoes Thermal treatment or Incineration when
the waste is burned or heated in some way to produce energy. Not only are
we running out of space in landfill sites, but new European legislation
requires us to find better ways of dealing with waste.
What is Litter?
Litter is anything which is thrown, dropped or left that defaces the environment
in
which we live. This can be as little as a cigarette end thrown from a car
window, or a
piece of chewing gum dropped on the pavement. It could be a single sweet
wrapper
or a whole bag of rubbish. It looks bad and is harmful to the environment
and
encourages vermin.
The most commonly littered items are:
- Small sweet wrappers
- Apple cores
- Cigarette butts
- Chewing gum
Dropping any litter is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 – it can carry a fine of up to £2500 upon conviction. Some Councils have a local Enforcement Officer whose job it is to educate people about the problems litter causes and what they can do to help combat it. Anyone caught littering can be issued with an on-the-spot Fixed Penalty Notice of £75
How long does litter take to biodegrade?
| Paper | up to 5 months |
| Orange Peel | up to 6 months |
| Chewing gum | up to 5 years |
| Sweet Wrapper | up to 5 years |
| Fast Food Drink Cups | up to 5 years |
| Cigarette Butts | up to 12 years |
| Plastic Bags | up to 20 years |
| Drink Cans | up to 100 years |
| Glass Bottles | up to 1 million years |
| Plastic Bottles | Never |
