Recycling Waste in the UK

The volume of waste that our homes and businesses produce is nothing short of incredible. In fact, the average UK household produces a tonne of waste every year. This amount is increasing by 3% each year, which means that we will double the amount of waste we produce every 25 years. That is why it’s so important to properly dispose of our unwanted or unusable materials by recycling waste whenever we can.

Homes and businesses up and down the UK divide their waste into plastics, glass, metal, food, paper ready for recycling before putting general waste in a separate bin. The standard procedure is that the refuse collection services operated by your local council will collect your waste on a nominated day – a service which is paid for out of your council tax. But what do we actually know about recycling waste? And how much of our waste is recycled?

Recycling Waste – The Facts

At GLJ Recycling we aim to educate both businesses and individuals on the benefits of good waste management and recycling. Here are our top facts on recycling to get you thinking and inspire you to recycle properly:

1. Every year here in the UK, our homes and businesses produce over 100 million tonnes of waste. To give you an idea of the volume we produce, in just two hours we could fill an entire stadium.

2. Our homes produce 31 million tonnes of waste each year, and in 25 years this figure will double to over 62 million tonnes.

3. Paper is the most recycled material in the UK – in fact In just one year, the average UK home will throw away 6 trees worth of paper, mostly made up of newspapers and magazines.

4. We produce 20 times more plastic today than we did in the 1960s, one of the reasons is the use of plastic bags. However with new legislation in place whereby we have to pay 5 pence for every new bag we use, we hope that we will see a slowdown on the increase we are seeing in our use of plastic, as we will learn to re-use. Plastic bags take over 100 years to decompose, so it’s essential that these are not thrown away as general waste.

5. Metal waste such as aluminium cans can be recycled over and over without it affecting its composition, making it the perfect recyclable material. This is lucky seeing as we use 5 billion drinks cans every year in the UK alone.

6. Food waste is a huge issue, with UK homes throwing away up to £400 of edible food every year.

7. Each child will go through over 3,500 nappies before they are toilet trained, most of which end up in landfill sites.

With 80% of the contents off our bins recyclable, it’s essential that we take the time to do our bit in recycling waste properly. By recycling our paper, plastic, glass and aluminium waste, we can save large amounts of energy, raw materials and waste. With other countries recycling a lot more than we do in the UK, we still have a long way to go but with some effort, understanding and education we can continue to improve our the UK’s recycling habits.

Want to learn more about how you can do your bit for the environment by recycling waste better – take a look at our last post on how to recycle. 

Recycling Waste Specialists

For further advice contact the recycling waste specialists at GLJ Recycling. Tel: 01495 272 988