Search for Recycling

Key facts

Recycling

• More than 60% of the waste produced by households can be recycled, by taking part in recycling you can help to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill;
  
  
• People in the UK throw away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks;
  

• In the UK we dispose of one million tonnes of textiles annually, of which 500 tonnes is solely clothing – at least 50% of this could be recycled.
  

Paper

• The average person living in the UK uses around 200kg of paper every year;
  
• Paper and card make up 40% of the waste collected for recycling from UK households;
  
• For every tonne of recycled newspaper, we save 17 trees;
  
• Recycling paper saves almost 80% of the energy needed to make paper from new raw materials;
  
• It can take just seven days for old magazines and newspapers to be recycled into new ones.

Glass

• Around 14 million glass bottles and jars are sent to landfill in the UK every day. On average, every family in the UK consumes around 330 glass bottles and jars a year;
  
• Recycling one glass bottle or jar saves enough energy to power your computer for 20 minutes;
  
• Glass can be recycled again and again – containers made from recycled glass are of the same high quality as those made from new raw materials;
  
• Green glass bottles are made with up to 90% recycled glass;
  
• The glass we recycle in the UK each year saves enough energy to launch 10 space shuttle missions;
  
• We can recycle glass indefinitely? If we recycle it, this resource can be used again and again. If we don’t, this valuable resource will be sent to landfill and lost forever.