12 amazing facts about recycling

Waste King reveals 12 amazing facts about recycling

Waste King, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, is urging everyone – from individuals to the largest corporations – to recycle as much of their waste as possible.

In an attempt to raise awareness of the scale on which we produce waste, Waste King has revealed 12 amazing waste-related facts:

1. We use over 6bn glass bottles and jars each year. It would take you over 3,500 years to sing ‘Six Billion Green Bottles’.
2. Every tonne of paper recycled saves 17 trees.
3. In just over a week, we produce enough rubbish to fill Wembley Stadium. Over half that waste could be recycled.
4. Every year in the UK, we use 13bn steel cans which, if you placed them end to end, would stretch to the moon – three times!
5. The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle is enough to power a light bulb for four hours.
6. Each day, we produce enough rubbish to fill Trafalgar Square to the height of Nelson’s Column.
7. Each year, a typical person gets through the contents of 90 drink cans, 70 food cans, 107 bottles and jars and 45kg of plastic.
8. On average, each person in England and Wales produces nearly 500kg of household waste in a year.
9. The UK produces more than 434m tonnes of waste every year – enough to fill 3.5m double-decker buses.
10. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
11. A modern glass bottle will take 4,000 years or more to decompose – and even longer if it’s part of a landfill site.
12. Each year, every person in the UK produces waste equivalent to the weight of five cars – and we only recycle 11% of it all.

Andy Cattigan, of Waste King, explained: “Recycling may be becoming ‘fashionable’ – but it’s none the worse for that. We produce far too much waste each year and recycle far too little of it.”

Waste King pledges to recycle as much as possible of every load of waste its staff clear from customers’ premises – and Waste King has taken its own advice by completely furnishing its offices with recycled products.

“It’s never too late to start recycling your rubbish – especially if it’s the sort of rubbish that the Council don’t take away,” Andy added. “Moreover, opting to recycle your waste through Waste King can usually work out cheaper than hiring a skip.”

See the story online - http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Consumer/Waste_King_reveals_12_amazing_facts_about_recycling_428571.html