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UK households create about 30 million tonnes of waste each year and 60% of this waste could have been recycled. Recycling more will save on raw materials, use less energy and will also release less carbon emissions into the atmosphere. At the moment The UK recycles 17% of their waste but this is low in comparison to other countries in the EU who recycle up to 50% of waste. The items of waste that can be recycled easily are aluminium, tin, glass and plastic. These can all be collected separately and taken to a recycling unit that are found in public car parks and supermarkets. Some recycling schemes can also come to the house. You can also help conserve resources by reusing plastic bags, jars and newspapers. Donate old clothes and electrical goods. Don't buy goods that are overly packaged and try to buy loose items or already recycled products. In the office try to apply the same recycling methods and reduce the use of the fax, especially junk mail, take old computers to electrical recycle units and encourage the use of recycling units outside or near the office. If you have a garden you can create compost with old biodegradable waste, this can be used to fertilise other plants growing in your garden. Grow your own vegetables and plant trees if you have the space and time. To put this into realistic terms, aluminium can be recycled indefinitely and uses 95% less energy than used if making an aluminium product from scratch. Recycled plastic saves 70% energy and paper saves 40% energy. The energy saved by recycling as apposed to making products from raw materials can be converted into real energy use. Recycling one tin saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours, a plastic bottle recycled is an equivalent to lighting a room for 3 hours, and also using a computer for 25 minutes. If we can recycle more we can make a direct contribution to control climate change, save our resources for when they are truly needed. We are lucky that the products we use in our everyday lives can be used and recycled and we should start to make the most of this more. Also the government are starting to do a lot more towards encouraging recycling; this includes fining to those that do not recycle their goods.
Staff editor, Gas & Electricity Section, November 2007 |
