Recycling and heading towards a sustainable future is now a huge thing in our lives. We are asked to recycle our waste and many of us activity participate in recycling or upcycling. It is now part of modern life and will only gain further momentum in the reduction of materials that end up in landfill and unfortunately our oceans.
We are at a turning point in the goal to change how we consume and dispose of any waste materials. New methods, materials and habits are changing. That is why many of you reading this article will be surprised to learn that the first account of recycling was recorded in Japan nearly a thousand years ago. The industrialist nature of the Japanese was first recognised in 1031 when they learned how to recycle paper and sold it again as new.
A huge part of our work is recycling. We are incredibly conscious of our role in making sure little from a house clearance goes to landfill. Setting an example is extremely important for us and our clients. When you start to learn and understand the incredible amount of waste disposed every year, this can have a profound effect on your attitudes towards recycling. We hope readers will take note of some of the interesting and you could say disturbing facts we came across.
So, lets share some more interesting facts about recycling
- A typical average family will throw away annually approximately 40kg of plastic that isn’t but could be recycled
- Over 7 million tons of food and drink are thrown away each year in the UK
- Food waste from bars, restaurants, and hotels accounts for £724 million a year because we didn’t finish our meals or ordered too much
- It is estimated that more than 50% of the contents in our waste bins can be reused or recycled, but isn’t
- As long ago as 1875, the first household waste receptacles were established in accordance with the Public Health Act. The streets were certainly much cleaner from therein
- Waste per capita increases by 3% year-on-year
- On a positive, paper is the most widely recycled material. Over two thirds of our wastepaper is recycled here in the UK
- Work this one out. The power that is generated by recycling one glass bottle could power a laptop for 25 minutes. Obscure but imagine the upscaling possibilities
- A proper unknown fact. Around 50% of the renewable energy we use comes from the gases produced by landfills.
- You’ve heard about the excess Methane in that melts permafrost and can be quite dangerous. Did you know that when waste was first dumped in designated landfills, it used to ignite spontaneously because of the high concentration of Methane?
- Each new-born child in its formative years will go through on average 3,500 nappies that end up in landfill. A good case for reusable nappies
- Before the invention of aluminium, tin was the main material used to contain food. Tin cans were disposed of in landfill and take around 50 years to decompose. An interesting one for any vintage tin can collectors wishing to explore landfills for their next find
- Glass bottles are the worst material for landfill, estimated to take up to 1 million years to decompose
Some of these facts and figures, indeed most of them are quite shocking. It is now down to all of us, especially companies like us in the house clearance market, to be extremely conscious of our actions, change habits and create a different attitude towards waste.
Providing house clearance services in London and home counties not only sees us clear furniture and the unwanted items you would expect, but we also dispose of kitchen contents and other items that would ordinarily end up in landfill. Recycling is important, and we should all be very conscious of our actions, wasting as little as we can, and when we do create waste, make sure we are responsible as we can be with recycling and upcycling at the top of our agenda!