Why the need to recycle?
Each household produces about one tonne
of rubbish annually, amounting to approximately 27 million tonnes for the UK each year. That equals the weight of about 2.7
million Diplodocus, around the same number of people who live in the Greater Manchester
area!
The amount of rubbish we throw away is increasing
for a number of reasons:
- new packaging materials and technology are being developed
- lifestyle changes, for example a greater reliance on convenience/fast
food
- increasing affluence, leading to greater consumption of goods
- increasing population
Today's rubbish compared to pre-1960s rubbish,
contains more products that don't break down when they're put in the ground. Packaging waste makes up about a quarter of all
the rubbish you put in your bin, most of this could be recycled.
We need to increase the amount of rubbish that
is recycled because we cannot carry on burying and burning rubbish forever. This is recognised by the government who are thinking
of ways we can reduce the amount of rubbish we produce and increase the amount we reuse and recycle.
However, these changes will not happen overnight,
to increase recycling we need to:
- collect more rubbish in recycling bins and on doorsteps ready
to be recycled
- build more recycling plants
- educate people about recycling
- make sure there are enough rubbish trucks to collect the recyclable
rubbish
- find ways of using the recycled material by making it into
useful items. Did you know some fleece jackets are made from recycled plastic bottles?
Information courtesy recycle more uk
