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The advert “Recycle, or the earth gets it” was pretty spot on with its light-hearted threat. In 2012, the UK produced a terrifying 200 million tonnes of waste. Two years later in 2014, only 8.7 million tonnes of waste were recycled, which means we’ve got a lot of work to do! Alison Handling are doing their bit for the environment with all of their plastic storage solutions being fully recyclable and here’s a few day-to-day items that you should make sure you recycle to help save the planet.
Small but mighty when it comes to re-usable energy, a single recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours. On average, the unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours. Just make sure they’re clean!
Fairly straight forward but incredibly important. Over 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are used in the UK per year. Which is the equivalent weight of 260 QE2s (Queen Elizabeth cruise ship). Each tonne of recycled paper will save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic meters of landfill space, 4000 KW of energy and 7000 gallons of water.
275,000 tonnes of plastic are used every year in the UK. That’s around 15 million bottles per day. Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled. The use of plastic in Western Europe is growing about 4% each year. Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.
Glass is one of the most common materials found in households, from bottles, to jars, to containers, to placemats. It is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again without any loss in quality or purity. It is not biodegradable and usually finds its way washed up on beaches for years and years. Glass containers are also easily re-usable around the house. Washed out sauce jars can become food containers, coffee jars or even piggy banks for the kids.
Every time you order that new pair of shoes, or a shiny new Blu-Ray online, it usually arrives in a box about twice the size as the product, and full of unnecessary space. Recycling one ton of cardboard could save a whopping 9 cubic yards of landfill space! Make sure you break down your boxes to save room when recycling, or re-use your box for storage!
So there you have it, just a few tips to help reduce your carbon footprint, and get a little more knowledge on how you can help save the earth.