Fascinating Waste Facts
Did you know that...
The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year. This quantity of rubbish 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, and each family consumes around 330 glass bottles and jars a year. Recycling two bottles saves enough energy to boil water for five cups of tea.
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. We produce and use 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago!
One litre of oil can pollute 1 million litres of fresh drinking water. 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.
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. For details of what's in your bin follow this link
Recycling 1 aluminium can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours.
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
| DisabledGo Information |  | Terms & Conditions | ©2010 Crown Copyright |