What a load of rubbish!

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When we think about environmental issues we often think of the big picture such as the rainforests, or air pollution, but every week, households up and down the country tie up their council rubbish bags and put them at the front gate to be taken away. Have you ever thought about how much rubbish we throw away every week or what affect it has on our environment?

In this consumer society, we need to start thinking about what we buy and what we do with it once we've used it. When we start talking about reducing, reusing and recycling waste, what do we mean and isn't it all just rubbish? Our first concern should be to look at how we can reduce the amount of waste we create because this removes the need to dispose of it and also saves energy by not needing to manufacture it in the first place .

Some stats and facts?

1. 6 billion glass bottles and jars are used every year.

2. We need a forest the size of Wales to provide all the paper we use in Britain every year.

3. Households throw away 28 million tonnes of rubbish each year.

4. Each person throws away, on average, 74kg of organic waste, that's the same as 1077 banana skins.

5. 80 million food and drinks cans are buried in landfill sites every single day.

6. 300 million square metres of land are filled with rubbish that we throw away every year. That’s the same as covering the pitch at Old Trafford; Manchester United's football ground 28,450 times.

7. One million tonnes of nappies are thrown away every year. Every child uses 5850 nappies in their lifetime.

What is rubbish?

What we generally think of as rubbish is a mixture of many things that can be re-used or recycled such as glass, paper, metal and plastic and materials that can be composted such as garden and kitchen waste. The rest of the bulk of waste is made up of mostly paper products, plastics, wood and garden rubbish. The stuff that you put into your rubbish bin is called solid waste.

Where does the rubbish go?

Each week, rubbish from homes, shops and schools is collected and emptied into specially designed trucks, but have you given any thought to where these trucks take your rubbish or what impact it has on our environment?

In big cities, rubbish may be burned in a huge oven that is called a furnace or an incinerator. The rubbish must be burnt at very high temperatures to make sure that it gives off fewer harmful gases that can pollute the air. If rubbish is not heated to extremely high temperatures, there is a risk that DIOXIN can be released into the environment. There are laws to make sure that harmful smoke and gases are made cleaner, but some may still escape from the chimney and out into the air. In some countries, the heat from the incinerators can be used to make electricity or heat homes. The ashes from the furnace are cooled in water and then taken to a landfill site or mixed with concrete to make breezeblocks for building work.

The United Kingdom ranks highest in the world by burying 90% of its solid waste in landfill sites across the country.