Waste is the unseen problem, once we dispose of it we think about it no more. While your waste costs might not be so forgettable when its on your company’s balance sheet, for most of us – your employees included, don’t think about it once it goes in the rubbish bin or pile. Readjusting your waste disposal habits and placing a greater emphasis on recycling and re-use could save your company serious cash in the long run.
Here are 5 facts to get you thinking:
1. Each year in he UK, we throw out nearly 50 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) – if all the components were laid end-to-end, that would reach to the moon three times. More shocking still, is that 25% of it is functioning equipment – and if it were to be re-used would save a total of £200m!
2. Most people believe that the majority of waste comes from households and domestic use – this is false; household waste only accounts for 9% of the country’s total waste; only around 25% of it comes from households and commercial business use combined. The rest of it, comes from construction and demolition; sewage sludge and farming; spoils from mining, and the drudging of rivers. Every hour the nation creates enough waste to fill the Albert Hall.
3. Food waste from the catering and leisure industries amounts to £724 million in spoiled food. Think how many people that could feed?
4. 50% of the renewable energy that we produce each year comes from gases that are emitted from landfill sites, hardly surprising as each person throws away seven times their own body weight in rubbish.
5. Glass and metal can be recycled an infinite number of times: six billion glass bottles and jar are thrown away each year – it would take three and a half thousand years to sing ‘six billion green bottles’, which is nothing compared to how long glass sticks around for: as it doesn’t decompose or break down, it will last forever. Recycling one glass bottle would save enough energy to power a laptop for 25 minutes.