Reduce climate change and save energy
Reducing the amount we throw away means we are dumping much less waste in landfill. This saves valuable resources, including your money, and reduces pollution.
Recycling uses much less energy than producing new materials from scratch. This means less fossil fuel is burnt and less greenhouse gas is emitted.
Recycling or composting biodegradable waste like food and paper prevents methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, being produced in landfills.
The vast majority of materials collected for recycling from your doorstep are recycled and used in the UK - this means less fuel is used to export waste and import new materials.
Save habitats and resources and reduce pollution
Mining and quarrying raw materials can damage or destroy local wildlife habitats, and refining these raw materials often results in pollution which can affect the wider environment.
Resources can run out and we never know when we may need them in the future. It makes sense to make the most of the resources we have by using them more than once if possible. That is where recycling comes in.
Save money
Sending waste to landfill is much more expensive than recycling - it currently costs us £56 in tax alone for each tonne of waste we bury. If we bury more waste than the Government allows us to, we will also be fined £150 for each tonne we landfill over our allowance. That's money that could be put to other uses in your local area.
Reduce landfill
Landfill sites are massive holes in the ground and take up a lot of space which could be used for other purposes. We don't have much space left in our landfills and have no plans to build new landfills in the future.
Did you know?
- Recycling aluminium uses only five per cent of the energy and emissions needed to make it from raw materials
- In the UK, we use 13 billion steel cans every year. Stacked on top of each other, you could make three piles of cans that would reach to the moon
- 1 tonne of virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
- Each year in the UK we go through over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical waste. That is the equivalent of 150 thousand double decker buses!