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Issue Description
Waste and recycling has become a political hot potato in recent years, with issues such as rubbish collections and the use of supermarket carrier bags hitting the headlines. Britain’s record on waste disposal remains poor, with the UK sending more than 22.6 million tonnes to landfill in 2004-5. Could we recycle more, and would this really help the environment in the long term? This books looks at some of the issues.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year. This rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London in less than two hours. (page 4)
- Every year UK households throw away the equivalent of 3½ million double-decker buses (almost 30 million tonnes), a queue of which would stretch from London to Sydney (Australia) and back. (page 4)
- 64% of the UK’s municipal waste was sent to landfill in 2005/06. 27% was recycled or composted, and 8% was incinerated. (page 6)
- Britain has dedicated an area the size of Warwick – 109 square miles – exclusively to landfill and will run out of space for dumping in less than a decade if current trends continue. (page 10)
- In the UK we are throwing away one-third of the food we buy. That’s like one in three bagfuls of food shopping going straight in the bin. (page 11)
- Around 13bn plastic bags are given free to UK shoppers every year. The bags can take between 400-1,000 years to break down, and like all forms of plastic they do not biodegrade. Instead they photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits that contaminate soil, waterways and oceans, entering the food chain when ingested by animals. (page 13)
- Nearly half the population (48%) admit to dropping litter. (page 15)
The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours. (page 22) - Recycling increased by 27% across all regions between 2002 and 2006, with households in the east of England recording the highest figure of 34%, almost double the rate of four years previously. London and the north-east recycled the lowest proportion. (page 31)
- Although 57% of the population agrees it is right for retailers to start charging for plastic shopping bags, 52% of people feel they should be able to make up their own minds about this issue and not have it forced on them by retailers wanting to charge. 35% feel it is wrong for the government to ban retailers from giving them away free. (page 36)
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Our Throwaway Society
Waste in the UK, Rubbish, Wacky waste facts, Waste management, Consumer adultery – the new British vice, Wasteful Britain: the ‘dustbin of Europe’, Wasted food now costs UK homes £10bn, Scale of packaging waste problem, Q&A: plastic bags, Carrier bags, Litter, The problem with litter, British waste adds to crisis across China.
Chapter Two: Waste Solutions
Waste at home, Tips to reduce waste, A strategy to cut waste, New powers needed to tackle litter louts, Government wants us to recycle on the go, Recycling facts and figures, Recycling tips, The machine that sorts household rubbish, Recycle and reuse, Steps to successful home composting, How green are we?, Hazardous landfill waste falls, Landfill sites have a green future, Recycling is not enough – we need to consume less, Why recycling isn’t really saving the planet, Government ready to act on plastic bags, Consumers oppose nanny state on plastic bags, Waste exports, Time to waste – tackling the landfill challenge, Renewable energy from rubbish is possible.
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
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The Study Guide for: Waste Issues - Volume 161
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.95
ISBN: 978 1 86168 477 6