Statistics

 

 

 

• 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

• On average, every family in the UK consumes around 330 glass bottles and jars a year (British Glass)

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• Each year one person gets through, on average, 90 drink cans, 70 food cans, 107 bottles and jars and 45kg of plastic

• The UK uses about 12 billion cans each year. If placed end to end they would stretch to the moon and back

• Disposable nappies may take 500 years to decompose

• Each week the average family in a developed country gets through 4 glass bottles or jars, 13 cans, 3 plastic bottles and 5 kilograms of paper

• Each UK household produces about 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to about 27 million tonnes for the UK each year

• Every year over 10 billion steel cans are produced and up to a quarter of every new can is made up of recycled steel

• In Europe 55% of all steel made comes from recycled steel

• Each UK resident uses an equivalent of 200 cans a year - if you put these end to end, this is as high as the Tower of London

• Producing steel from recycled material saves 75% of the energy needed if steel were made from virgin material

• Every steel can is 100% recyclable. It can be recycled over and over again into products like bicycles and of course new cans