A Few (More) Fascinating Facts About Everyday Recycling

In our previous post, we shared a bunch of our favourite facts and figures on everyday recycling in the UK. After publishing it, we realised we still had a huge list of interesting factoids to share.

So as a continuation of the prior post, here’s another selection of thought-provoking facts and figures on the UK’s current recycling performance:

Aluminium recycling standards in the UK have never been higher. Nevertheless, if every aluminiumcan sold was to be recycled, we’d need 14 million less dustbins across the country.
Cans made of aluminium are particularly valuable as they are 100% recyclable. After a period to 60 days, an aluminium can go from being purchased at a store to being used, recycled and put back on the same shelf holding the same product.
The same also goes for steel, which likewise is 100% recyclable. Steel cans that are appropriately recycled can be used to manufacture just about anything imaginable that contains any amount of steel.
Tragically, we’re still not doing nearly enough to recycle cans. Every day, another 80 million cans make their way into landfill sites across the UK and abroad.
The average UK household gets through 600 aluminium cans per year, contributing to a total national tally of 5 billion cans.
Those who commit themselves to doing their ‘bit’ at an advanced level could be looking at a goldmine. In fact, research suggests that the waste cans lying around the UK waiting to be collected and recycled are collectively worth more than £30 million.
It’s possible to recycle 20 cans and put them back into the system with the same amount of energy that would be required to make one new can from scratch.
We’ve got a long way to go to catch up with Japan, where the aluminium can recycling rate surpasses 90%.
As for paper, it takes as little as a week to transform waste magazines, books and newspapers into brand-new publications ready to be purchased.
For every ton of paper we recycle, we collectively save 380 gallons of oil and 17 trees.
Brits typically throw 90% of their Sunday newspapers away within a matter of days. This equates to a worrying 500,000 trees making their way to a landfill site.
Air pollution emissions are 73% lower when recycling paper than creating paper from scratch.
If we all improved our paper recycling habits by a mere 10%, around 5 million trees would be saved every single year.
Worldwide, total global demand for paper is met by 4 billion trees, which are cut down and processed.
Every year, the amount of paper used in the United Kingdom is manufactured from trees that could cover the entire surface area of Wales.
On the plus side, our recycling habits with paper are getting better all the time. As things stand today, approximately 70% of all waste paper in the UK is recycled.