Have you ever thought about how much rubbish you and your family throw away every week or why we need to stop throwing so much of it away?
Did you know that…
Glass
It is not known how long glass takes to break down but it is so long that glass made in the Middle East over 3000 years ago can still be found today.
Recycling two bottles saves enough energy to boil water for five cups of tea.
Fantastic plastic
We produce and use 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago!
The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today.
Facts about plastics
Oil
1 litre of oil can pollute 1 million litres of fresh drinking water (Scottish Oil Care Campaign).
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)
Paper
For every tonne of paper used for recycling the savings are:
* at least 30000litres of water
* 3000 – 4000 KWh electricity (enough for an average 3 bedroom house for one year)
* 95% of air pollution.