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Waste facts Did you know... Each Cornish resident throws away 576 kg of waste • every year. That’s about ½ tonne per person On average, each person in the UK throws away • between seven and ten times their body weight in rubbish every year In the UK we create enough rubbish to fill the Albert • Hall every two hours The average Cornish household throws away • £425 worth of food each year In Cornwall we recycle approximately • 25% of our household waste. We could recycle at least 60% Aluminium In Cornwall we • throw away 58 million aluminium cans every year that could all be recycled The energy it takes to make one new aluminium can • is enough to make 20 recycled ones and aluminium cans can be recycled over and over again Aluminium is the most valuable recyclable material. • There are more than 30 million pounds worth of empty aluminium drinks cans in the UK just waiting to be collected, cashed in and recycled If all the aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK • were recycled, there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins per year Recycling one aluminium can, can power a TV set for • 3 hours Glass Glass packaging makes up about • 8% by weight of Cornwall’s household waste On average, each person in the UK uses • 110 glass bottles and jars per year. Only 27% of these (about 30 per person) get recycled Glass is made of sand, soda ash and limestone • Glass bottles need to be sorted into their different • colours (clear, green & blue or brown) before they are recycled Crushed glass, called cullet, is used to make recycled • bottles Steel • 3 out of 4 cans produced in the UK are made of steel • 2 billion steel cans are recycled every year in the UK. That’s about 7 million a day • Steel is made of iron ore, coke (that’s made from coal, not Coca-Cola), limestone and some scrap steel • In Cornwall we throw away 300 million steel cans a year that could be recycled • Steel cans are recycled and made into more cans, parts of bridges, paper clips and lots more • Steel can be recycled over and over again
