Did you know that packaging makes up less than 3% of waste in the UK that goes to landfill?

Each year we generate about 300 million tonnes of waste from households, commerce and industry combined. However, the good news is that more of this is being recycled than ever before. Households throw away approximately 27 million tonnes of waste per year, an estimated 9.3 million being packaging, and since packaging is usually rigid it often appears to be more than it actually is!

Defra set the targets to be reached for recycling by UK industry and these are based on those required by the EU. Here in the UK we are currently on target to recycle just over 55% of all of the packaging in the UK waste stream, and recover a further 10% using incineration - producing energy from waste. The UK has successfully met all the target dates since 1997. For more waste statistics please visit www.defra.gov.uk

Please take a look at the picture of the dustbin that shows the break down of the sort of rubbish that goes into the average family's dustbin. When you see plastic packaging it appears to be large items, but this is because they are usually preformed into a specific shape. The vast majority of these materials can be recycled easily in the UK, check out the bank locator for more details.

Overall in the UK we are making a huge effort to improve both what waste is put onto the market, and how we can best recycle it using the most environmentally beneficial processes.

Food Waste

In the UK, an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of household food waste is produced. According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign "wasting food costs the average family £420 a year".

"If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road."