Call 0333 444 9978
"Calls charged at local rate or as part of inclusive minutes from mobiles"
info@theskipcompany.co.uk
Did you know that we each throw away seven and a half times our own body weight in household rubbish each year? That’s a meaty amount of missed recycling opportunities.
Did you know that we each throw away seven and a half times our own body weight in household rubbish each year? That’s a meaty amount of missed recycling opportunities. As a nation we only recycle 34% of our waste, which leaves us lagging behind other European countries, especially Germany, which recycles 64%.
Most of us are guilty of throwing away the odd sticky can, but when you consider what we waste in “real” terms – the potential energy lost from not recycling recyclable goods – it gives some perspective on our shortcomings. For example: Over a year, the average family’s dustbin overflows with enough unreleased energy to heat 500 baths, or power a television for 5000 hours.
Sadly, each household also throws away an average of six trees worth of paper a year! So the next time you’re about to bin that cornflakes’ box remember that recycled paper uses 70% less energy to produce.
Sometimes we may all wonder whether our domestic recycling can make much difference. But it’s worth noting that glass, for instance, can be recycled many time without losing its purity and the energy from just one recycled bottle can power a 100-watt light-bulb for an hour.
Currently, most homes get through 600 steel cans per year, which amounts to 12.5 billion cans nationally; sadly 10 billion end up as landfill. However, steel cans are 100% recyclable, and are turned in to new products within six weeks. With the energy expelled from making one from raw materials, twenty recycled cans can be produced.
It’s not all doom and gloom: Our recycling efforts last year weighed-in at a whopping 8.7 million tonnes. This included 2.1 billion glass wine bottles – enough to build six stacks reaching to the moon, and 2.9 billion aluminium cans – enough to stretch around the world nine times.
Much of our recyclable waste takes eons to decompose in heaving landfill sites: a plastic bag takes a thousand years to breakdown, compared to one month for a paper bag. However, even 96% of redundant television parts could be recycled.
If we recycled all of our recyclable waste, we could save 58 million tonnes of CO2 a year, equivalent to the amount absorbed by 64,046 miles of forest.
So remember, with every item you toss towards the recycling bin rather than the bin, you’re making a difference by contributing to conserving energy and salvaging essential resources.
