recovery and reuse
Recycling facts
The Hard Facts about Recycling
Fact 1
Most of our waste is burned or buried which is bad for the environment and our health. Why? Because incineration encourages more waste, incinerators require a minimum amount of rubbish to operate. To meet demand, local authorities are abandoning recycling and waste reduction plans. Incineration also uses up energy. Most incinerators that generate electricity aren't efficient enough to be an energy saving option. Recycling saves far more energy because it means making less new things from raw materials. Incineration also can cause pollution if not properly controlled. Smoke, gases and ash from incinerators can contain harmful chemicals such as dioxins which are a cause of cancer.
Fact 2
Landfill dumping of rubbish in the ground or in waste mountains releases toxins and threatens our quality of life. Rotting rubbish emits explosive gases and polluting liquids. Methane emissions contribute to climate change. Landfill creates problems for local communities including nuisances from more traffic, noise, odours, smoke, dust, litter and pests.
Fact 3
European laws are forcing the Government to reduce landfilled waste. The £400 million a year raised from landfill taxes could be used to provide every home in the UK with a better rubbish disposal industry providing recycling collection service, composting and more... Instead we are replacing landfill with incinerators and dumping toxic incineration ash in existing landfill.
Fact 4
Each household produces about 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to about 27 million tonnes for the UK each year. The amount is increasing, because increasing affluence leads to increased consumption and changing lifestyles.
Fact 5
About a quarter of the waste in the average household bin is packaging. New materials and technology are constantly being developed to make packaging more easily recyclable.
Fact 6
Disposal of waste has huge environmental impacts and can cause serious problems. In the U.K. much is buried in landfill sites - holes in the ground, sometimes old quarries, sometimes specially dug. Some waste will eventually rot, but not all, and in the process it may smell or generate methane gas, which is explosive and contributes to the greenhouse effect. Liquids that leak from waste as it decomposes may cause pollution. Badly-managed landfill sites may attract vermin or create litter.
Fact 7
Incinerating waste also causes air pollution. Plastics tend to produce toxic substances, such as dioxins, when they are burnt. Gases from incineration cause air pollution and contribute to acid rain, while the ash from incinerators may contain poisonous heavy metals and other dangerous chemicals.
Fact 8
Throwing away things wastes resources. It wastes the raw materials and energy used in making the items and it wastes money. Reducing waste means less environmental impact, less resources and energy usage - and it saves money.
Fact 9
Local authorities are responsible for waste disposal and the government has introduced targets for them to meet. The aim is for all local authorities to recycle at least 10% by 2003. Those which currently recycle 5 - 15% must double their rate by 2003, and those already recycling more than 15% must recycle or compost at least one third of their household waste.
Fact 10
At least half of the contents of our dustbins could potentially be recycled. In addition, we could compost the 20% of vegetable peelings and other organic waste that we throw away. Despite this potential to recycle or compost around 60% - 70% of our waste, we are only recycling or composting 12%. A total of 80% of municipal waste is landfilled and 8% is incinerated to produce energy.
Fact 11
Key findings of five EU Studies on waste: neither incineration nor landfill is safe. PVC waste is on the increase, will double over the next 20 years, from 4.1 to 7.2 million tonnes per year. Almost 90% of this is consumer wastes. Incineration makes things worse, causing hazardous waste that can contaminate the environment. Landfilling is a ticking time bomb. PVC results in release of hazardous softeners and stabilisers and can contribute to formation of dioxins and furans in landfill fires.
Fact 12
Every hour the people of Britain throw away enough to fill the Albert Hall. In England and Wales it amounts to 106m tonnes of junk every year. Much of this goes into landfill sites or is incinerated. More than half of it - 76m tonnes - still goes in the ground.
Fact 13
UK is bottom of the league in recycling in Europe. Germany heads the league, recycling 46% of household waste, whereas the UK recycles only 9.5%.
And the Hard Facts about recycling printer cartridges
Fact 14
Gram for gram cartridge ink is more expensive than the finest Dom Perignon or Krug champagne Not only is this because of huge demand but also because it is so light.
Fact 15
Of some 60 million inkjet cartridges used each year in the UK, only about 10% are recycled. This means that 57 million cartridges get thrown away each year and end up in landfill sites or are incinerated.
Fact 16
Inkjet cartridges will take about 1,000 years to decompose in landfill sites. Sending cartridges to landfill also costs money because of the landfill tax passed on to consumers through council tax or companies' waste collection costs.
Fact 17
It can take up to 6 pints (nearly 3.5 litres) of oil to make just one printer cartridge. In less than a year, recycling cartridges in Europe could save more oil than the 11,000,000 gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdez oil tanker into Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989.
Fact 18
Landfill sites contain 'buried treasure' worth over £100 million in raw materials from discarded printer cartridges. Printer cartridges contain precious oil resources (see above), as well as cartridge ink (see above) both worth a fortune to replace as new.
For further information on recycling used cartridges (supply of postpaid bags for collection of inkjet printer cartridges or lasers), call:
Freephone 0800 435 576 (only in the UK)
> This document was last modified: 29 August 2006
