Tackling the UK’s growing waste problem
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Household waste in the UK is becoming an increasing problem, with people throwing out over 1072 kilograms (1.07 tonnes) of waste per household every year, of which 403kg was recycled. Per person, 473kg of household rubbish was thrown out and 173kg recycled. An average small family car weighs around 1 tonne, so the amount of rubbish people throw away a year per house is approximately the same weight as a car! In total, more than 27 million tonnes of waste is thrown into landfills across the UK each year. In Germany, which has a population that is 25% larger than the UK just 10 million tonnes are thrown away each year.
According to a new report by BBC news, landfill space in the UK is 109 square miles which is the size of Warwick and is constantly increasing. While other options are available such as incineration this itself can produce dangerous gases. Here are some tips for reducing your household waste:
Buying food with reduced packaging
On many foods purchased throughout the UK, there is often far more packaging than is required. For example, some fruits are also unnecessarily packaged in polystyrene trays with shrink wrap covering and some cakes are wrapped several times in layers of plastic material. If you are a customer, look for products with less packaging to reduce your own waste, and even encourage stores and brands to reduce theirs.
Recycling all you can
The amount of waste sent for recycling is growing, and as people are made more aware of which products are recycled this will continue to happen. Go a step further by checking with your local council to see what products can be recycled from your house. Plastic bottles, cans and paper are commonly recycled but now many councils are also recycling items such as batteries, old clothes and unwanted containers. The types of items that can be recycled varies per council across the UK so encourage your council to increase their recycling.
Composting your own waste
It is easy to compost much of your own organic waste at home which could substantially reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill. Many people already have a full sized composter, which is mainly used for garden cuttings, weeds or cut grass. But home and food organic waste – such as almost any cut flowers, food scraps, tea bags and more can be put into a smaller composter. A kitchen composter is an indoor composter that can biodegrade waste inside the home without smell or mess, and the biodegraded waste can then be placed outside either in an existing compost bin or buried to add nutrients to the garden.
Combined efforts of the government, businesses and individuals need to be used to combat the ever growing problem of rubbish generation in the UK. Using the tips above, residents throughout the UK can make a real difference to the problem.
People living in the UK throw away well over 28 million tonnes per year of rubbish from their homes, the same as three and a half million double decker buses. Unfortunately, only around 27% of this waste is recycled while most of the rest is tipped into landfill sites – better known as rubbish tips, large holes dug into the ground to store it. The rubbish stays in the ground for a long time because it does not decompose easily, and it releases poisonous materials, greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide and the trash itself can be a hazard to humans and wildlife. The space left for landfill is running out– and more landfill sites will need to be created.
