Facts
Recycling in London facts
London has 41 reuse and recycling centres operated by London waste authorities and their contractors.
Source: www.capitalwastefacts.com
The amount that Londoners recycle has risen steadily in recent years - from 9% of our rubbish in 2000/01 to 22.9% in 2006/07.
Source: Defra
Household recycling has increased, now over 90% of London households either receive a recycling collection from home or have access to nearby facilities.
Source: The Mayor's State of the Environment Report, July 2007
36.3% of London's municipal waste was recycled in 2005/06.
Source: Defra
20.7% of London's household waste was recycled in 2005/06.
Source: Defra
The London waste that currently goes to landfill could generate enough electricity for up to 2 million homes, and heat up to 625,000 homes.
Source: The Mayor's Climate Change Action Plan, February 2007
London‘s 3.1 million homes account for 16.7 million tonnes of CO2, or nearly 40% of London’s total CO2 emissions.
Source: The Mayor's Climate Change Action Plan, February 2007
If every lightbulb in every London home was energy efficient, London could save 575,000 tonnes of CO2 and $139 million per year.
Source: The Mayor's Climate Change Action Plan, February 2007
In the first target year, 2005/06, all of London's 16 waste disposal authorities met their landfill diversion targets.
Source: Environment Agency
Waste in London facts
Londoners produce 3.4 million tonnes of rubbish a year; this is enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool every hour.
Source: www.recycleforlondon.com
London produced over 3 million tonnes of household waste in 2005/06. Just 0.6 million tonnes (20%) was recycled.
Source: www.capitalwastefacts.com
London produced just over 4 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2005/06. Just 0.7 million tonnes (18%) was recycled.
Source: www.capitalwastefacts.com
The amount of waste London produces every year is forecast to rise to 22.6 million tonnes in 2020.
Source: GLA, Waste Forecast Modelling Technical report, 2004
Kitchen and garden waste accounts for around a third of waste collected from London's households and this general trend has been increasing.
Source: The Mayor's Food Strategy, May 2006
London exports 70% of its municipal waste to other places for treatment or disposal.
Source: Environment Agency
Recycling in the UK facts
The UK recycles 90% of automotive batteries, but only recycles 2% of consumer batteries.
Source: Environment Agency
Packaging waste recycling has doubled from 27% in 1998 to 56% in 2006.
Source: Waste Strategy for England 2007, Defra
The UK recycles 1.85 million cars every year and scraps two million. Eighty per cent of the waste material from cars is recycled and 20% goes to landfill.
Source: Environment Agency
Recycled paper uses between 28-70 per cent less energy than producing virgin paper.
Source: The Good Office Guide, Brother
Duplex printing can reduce your paper use by up to 50%.
Source: The Good Office Guide, Brother
Waste in the UK facts
The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year. This rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London in less than two hours.
Source: www.wasteonline.org.uk
Every year UK households throw away the equivalent of 3 ½ million double-decker buses (almost 3 million tonnes), a queue of which would stretch from London to Sydney (Australia) and back.
Source: www.wasteonline.org.uk
Each person in England generates 513kg of household waste a year. The percentage of household waste that is recycled has increased from 17.8% in 2003/04 to 22.5% in 2004/05.
Source: Environment Agency
Estimates suggest that packaging makes up about a quarter of all household waste and that around 70% of this is food related.
Source: The Mayor's Food Strategy, May 2006
The UK discards 12 billion plastic bags and 29 million food and drink cans every year.
Source: The Mayor's Food Strategy, May 2006
Every year, the average dustbin contains enough unrealised energy for 500 baths, 3,500 showers or 5,000 hours of television.
Source: www.assure.org
The average UK citizen will produce approximately 3.3 tonnes of WEEE in their lifetime - the equivalent of 160 mobile phones.
Source: www.weeeman.org
Someone fly-tips in England every 30 seconds.
Source: Environment Agency
Over 70% of rubbish in England and Wales is buried in landfill sites.
Source: Environment Agency
Waste typically costs companies 3.4 per cent of their annual turnover. At least a quarter of this waste can be avoided easily and cheaply in most offices.
Source: The Good Office Guide, Brother
The average office worker currently uses about one tree's worth of paper each year.
Source: The Good Office Guide, Brother
We get through 4.8 million tonnes of printing paper every year in the UK, and hardly any of it is recycled - 86% is sent to landfills or incinerated.
Source: The Good Office Guide, Brother
While emails should reduce office paper-use, they have actually increased it by 40%.
Source: The Good Office Guide, Brother
UK Targets
The UK target to reduce the amount of household waste not reused, recycled or composted decreased from 22.2 million tonnes in 2000 to 12.2 million tonnes by 2020.
Source: Waste Strategy for England 2007, Defra
UK targets aim to boost recycling rates from 27% to 50% by 2020.
Source: Waste Strategy for England 2007, Defra
The UK targets for municipal waste recovery are: 53% by 2010, 67% by 2015 and 75 % by 2020.
Source: Waste Strategy for England 2007, Defra
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