The UK produces over 400 million tonnes of general waste annually; a quarter comes from households and businesses, the rest comes from construction and demolition, sewage sludge, farm waste and spoils from mines and dredging of rivers. The following figures were reported a few years ago and are said to be improving – but by how much?
The amount of waste produced in the UK:
- In one hour – would fill the Albert Hall;
- In one day – would fill Trafalgar Square to the top of Nelson’s Column
- In nine months – would fill Lake Windermere
- Each person in England and Wales produces an average of 300 kg of household waste each year.
- Each year, the average British family throws away six trees worth of paper.
- About one fifth of the contents of household dustbins is paper and card (of which half is newspapers and magazines) – equivalent to over 4kg of waste paper per household each week!
- On average, each person throws away seven times their body weight in rubbish every year.
- Each tonne of paper recycled saves fifteen average trees and helps surrounding habitat and wildlife.
- Recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 15-watt energy efficient bulb (equivalent to 100-watt normal bulb) for 24 hours!
- The UK disposes of 50 million tyres a year – the law prevents them going to landfill.
- As a result of the Common Agricultural Policy, the UK threw away 30,000 tons of vegetables in ten months to guarantee “market price” for the people who grew them.
- We dispose of over two million television sets a year; they are now classed as Hazardous Waste and can no longer go to landfill.
- Transporting a year’s worth of UK waste would require five times the world’s fleet of supertankers or a nose-to-tail queue of juggernauts stretching six times around the globe!
- Every tonne of biodegradable waste produces 200-400 cubic metres of landfill gas – in 1998, landfill sites released nearly 30% of UKs methane emissions.
- 1 litre of oil can pollute 1 million litres of fresh drinking water.
- Waste oil from nearly 3 million cars oil changes is not collected; if collected correctly, this could meet the annual energy needs of 1.5 million people.
General Waste Facts in Percentages:
- 9% of the UKs waste comes from households – 30 million tonnes per year: 81% is landfilled; 11% recycled/composted; 8% incinerated.
- Nearly 50% of household waste could be diverted from landfill by making compost from kitchen and garden waste.
- Recycling one tonne of paper saves up to 70% energy used in manufacturing from virgin materials and requires 40% less water to produce.
- Reclaimed waste papers represent around 63% of the fibre used to produce paper and board in the UK.
- If UK domestic waste recycling was increased to 40%, up to 10,000 new jobs would be created.
- Packaging is about 25% of household waste.
- Recycling aluminium cans saves up to 95% of the energy required to produce one from aluminium ore.
- Five out of six used glass bottles are thrown straight into the dustbin! Up to 90% of new glass can be made from reclaimed scrap glass – saving energy and raw materials.
- In Europe, only 2.5% of plastic bottles are recycled; most are used only once then discarded.
The Costs of General Waste:
- We waste 500,000 tons of food per year; it is worth £400 million and disposal costs another £50 million – only a fraction is handed to charitable organisations which could use it.
- About 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging (worth £8 million) is wasted each year; only 3,000 tonnes are recycled (worth £1.2 million).
- The UK uses about 12 billion cans each year; placed end to end, they would stretch to the moon and back!
- £36 million worth of aluminum is sent to landfill sites each year.
- It costs about £130 million each year to dispose of the UKs waste packaging.
Each year, we enjoy Christmas but there are some general waste problems:
- Over six million trees were bought for Christmas 2005; most were thrown out afterwards creating over 9,000 tonnes of additional rubbish – why don’t people buy trees with roots and keep them growing?
- Why don’t people buy electrical goods that run off mains electricity rather than batteries? More than 680 million batteries are bought each year and only 5% are rechargeable – so the rest are land filled.
- 83 square km of wrapping paper and 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging ended up in UK rubbish bins. If ribbon had been used to tie up parcels, the paper could be reused.
- An extra 750 million bottles and glass containers and 500 million aluminium and steel drink cans were purchased – and subsequently thrown away, not recycled.
The 1.8 billion tonnes of waste generated each year in Europe works out at 3.5 tonnes per person. This consists mainly of waste from households, commercial activities (shops, restaurants, hospitals etc.), industry (pharmaceutical companies, clothes manufacturers etc.), agriculture (slurry, etc), construction and demolition projects, mining and quarrying activities and from energy generation.
Municipal waste generation averages 530kg per person per year, an average that masks significant differences among Member States. For example, per capita waste generation is 300 to 350 kg per annum in the EU-10 Member States, but around 570 kg in the EU-15.
In 2005, 49% of EU municipal waste was disposed of through landfill, 18% was incinerated and 27% recycled or composted.
Information courtesy of Reduce The Use.
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