General garbage

• In less than two hours, the UK produces enough waste to fill the Albert Hall;
• On average, every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks;
• It's not known how long glass takes to break down, but glass made in the Middle East 3000 years ago can still be found today. So that empty pasta sauce jar you chucked in the bin last night is going to sit in a landfill site for a long while to come;
• Most of the world's waste is produced by people from the 'developed' world (which includes Britain), even though these people only make up about 5% of the world's population;
• It takes approximately 17 trees to make one tonne of paper, and on average, each person in the UK uses over 200 kg of paper per year.

So, it's not surprising that we're rapidly running out of landfill sites to store our waste. And if that's not bad enough, landfill sites alone produce vast volumes of methane (around 20% of the UK's total methane emissions), which adds to global warming.

So what should we do?

Let's face it: we live in a materialistic society. We're tempted from left, right and centre by the lures of advertising and fabulous, new-fangled fads. Not only does this make it hard for some of us with less willpower to reduce the amount we buy, but it also means we're quick to dispose of the old stuff we don't want anymore. Hence there's a lot of unnecessary waste clogging up the planet and a lot of attitude-changing to be done.

We need to make changes, not only in the way we manage our waste, but to the amount we produce in the first place. Firstly, we need to reduce the amount of rubbish we generate, as well as reuse materials where possible. If we can't reduce or re-use, recycle.

Worthwhile waste

Instead of viewing waste as just an end-product, we should try regarding it as a resource we can actually use. An item that can no longer fulfil its original purpose doesn't mean it can't be used for something else.

You could even get creative with your waste, or if you've got about as much artistic flair as a brick, let others do it for you - some people are more than happy to take waste off of your hands to make items like jewellery from plastic carrier bags, goblets from beer bottles, haute couture from scraps of fabric, robots from tin cans, and much more.

You can also trade unwanted items via Freecycle, or donate them to your local charity shops, where you can hunt for bargains for yourself as well as giving money to good causes.

Mobile phones

Did you know that there are now more mobile phones in the UK than people? The next time you get offered a free upgrade for your mobile, ask yourself why you're saying 'yes' if your phone is in perfectly good working order. Don't add another unwanted mobile phone to the growing mountain of them. If you really can't resist buying a new one, try recycling your old mobile instead.

Great reasons to recycle

• The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will:
  - Power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour;
  - Power a computer for 25 minutes;
  - Power a colour TV for 20 minutes;
  - Power a washing machine for 10 minutes.
• Recycling aluminium requires only 5% of the energy it takes to make new aluminium, and produces only 5% of the carbon dioxide emissions;
• Every steel can is 100% recyclable, and can be recycled over and over again;
• If every Briton purchased one item made from recycled wool a year it would save 371 million gallons of water, 480 tonnes of chemical dyes and 4571 million days of an average family's electricity needs;
• 150 million plastic carrier bags are used in the UK each week, but they can take up to 500 years to decay in landfill.

Unfortunately, the UK still lags behind the rest of Europe in recycling. Part of the problem may be that not all of us are sure how to recycle, or even what items can actually be recycled. Recycle Now and Reuze have lots of information on how easy it is to reuse and recycle different types of rubbish, including paper, plastics and glass. They also offer advice on recycling other items, such as Brita filters, batteries, textiles and electrical equipment (including TVs and computers).

Nine out of 10 of us have roadside collection schemes for our recyclable rubbish. If you haven't been provided with a recycling container, contact your local council now to ensure they provide recycling schemes for your area and to find out which materials you can recycle.

Image by volunteer photographer Wendy Hobson

Updated: 16/04/2010

Researched by Sarah White