Today there are twice as many people on earth as there were 100 years ago and the disposal of waste has become a critical problem in our increasingly throw-away society. Almost every aspect of our modern lifestyle generates waste and we are throwing away more each day. Many believe that if we don't act soon to reduce our waste and reconsider the use of our natural resources the global ecosystem will fail. Thus resulting in the endangerment of not only many species of animals but
also humans.
The following are some recycling facts and figures the Laughing Dustman has compiled, in the hope that you and your neighbours alike will continue to recycle and be more environmentally aware... Saving the planet begins at home!
- In the UK, if there were no Dustman for one year to make their collections, there would be enough filled dustbins to reach the moon
- The energy saved by recycling just one wine bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes
- People have been recycling for over 4000 years, from composting in China to bronze in Europe
- In the UK alone we produce 435 million tonnes of solid waste every year. As a nation, we only recycle 18% of it, which is one of the worst rates in Europe
- The total amount of waste produced by the USA everyday is more than twice the weight of the entire population
- Nuclear waste such as Plutonium can remain radioactive for 500,000 years
- Food waste accounts for 21% of total waste and is the largest single proportion of all waste
- In the UK today, nearly 5 million tonnes of paper is dumped in landfill or incinerated every year
- Recycling just one tonne of paper saves 3,700 pounds of lumber and 24,000 gallons of water
- We throw away 12 billion aluminum cans in the UK every year
- It takes as much energy to make one new aluminum can from raw materials as it does to make twenty from recycled aluminum
- In 1989 a landfill site in Wales containing 10 million tyres caught fire releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere. The fire continued to burn underground for another 10 years!
- 2 million sea birds die every year due to eating or becoming caught up in plastic waste
- Each of us has more than 500 synthetic chemicals in our bodies that were non-existent 80 years ago
- Eskimos are exposed to some of the highest levels of chemical contamination in the world, even though they are thousands of miles from where the chemicals are used
- Remember, landfill taxes are rising by 32% a year so it makes sense on all fronts to get recycling sooner rather than later
- 60 years ago people threw away ash and soot from coal fires, and that is why they are called 'dust' bins
