UK Recycling Statistics

UK RECYCLING STATISTICS UK HOUSEHOLDS PRODUCED 30.5 MILLION TONNES OF WASTE IN 2013/14, OF WHICH 17% WAS COLLECTED FOR RECYCLING! 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 hours. 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it minutes. 1 recycled tin can would save enough from raw materials. energy to power a television for 3 hours. Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the 9 out of 10 dustbin could be people would recycle more if it were made recycled. easier. Up to 80% of a The vehicle can be unreleased recycled. energy contained in the average As much as dustbin each 50% of waste year could The largest lake in the in the average On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as rubbish. power a dustbin could television for be composted. Britain could 5,000 hours. be filled with rubbish from the UK in 8 months. ALUMINIUM 24 million tonnes of aluminium is produced annually, 51,000 tonnes of which ends up as packaging in the UK. If all cans in the UK were recycled, we would need 14 million fewer dustbins. £36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away each year. Aluminium cans can be recycled and ready to use in just 6 weeks. GLASS Each UK family uses an average of 500 glass bottles and jars annually. The largest glass furnace produces over 1 million glass bottles and jars per day. Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again. Glass that is thrown away and ends up in landfills will never decompose. PAPER Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials. 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are used annually in the UK. The average person in the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers per year. It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper. PLASTIC 275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK, that's about 15 million bottles per day. Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled. The use of plastic in Western Europe is growing about 4% each year. Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose. DOCKLANDS Waste Recycling Limited docklandsrecycling.co.uk Sources: http://www.recycling-guide.org.ukfacts.html defra.gov.uk