Temperature rising, sea levels increasing and wildlife slowly going extinct. Understanding the effects of global warming and how we can prevent it is extremely important to save our planet from environmental damage. Here are 100+ recycling & sustainability facts to help you make an impact in the fight against global warming. 

Plastic | Aluminum | Glass | Coffee Cups | Food | Hazardous Waste | Construction Waste | Cardboard 
Coffee Grounds | Batteries | WEEE | Toners

• The UK recycles around 380,000 tonnes of plastic bottles a year.
• In landfills, plastic can take up to 1,000 years to completely decompose.
• There will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Currently, around 3.5 trillion fish are living in the ocean.
• Approximately 7% of all plastic bottles are recycled globally.
• 75% less energy is consumed to make a plastic bottle from recycled plastic than using ‘virgin’ material.
• 1 tonne of plastic translates into 25,000 plastic bottles 
• A majority of plastic bottles and containers are made from Polyethylene terephthalate  (PET) or High-density polyethylene (HDPE).
• Microplastics can be found in every form of water we have, including tap water and have been found in humans digestive tracts.
• Each minute, the equivalent of a truckload of plastic pollutes the oceans.
• 73% of beach waste globally is plastic; this includes cigarette butt filters, bottles, bottle tops, food wrappers, shopping bags, and polystyrene containers.
• Nearly a million plastic water bottles are sold every minute worldwide.
• Almost half of all plastic waste produced worldwide comprises packaging material, much of which is never recycled or incinerated.

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• Aluminium is the third most common material in the crust of the earth and the second most utilised metal by the earth.
• 90% of all drinks cans sold in the UK annually are made of aluminium.
• Recycling aluminium drink cans saves up to 95% of the energy needed to make aluminium from its raw materials.
• Around 70% of all aluminium drinks cans are recycled globally, making the aluminium drink can the most recycled drinks container on the planet.
• Aluminium can be recycled an unlimited amount of times. 
• Aluminium cans in landfills will take 500 years to decompose.
• Recycling one aluminium can will conserve enough electricity to run a television for three hours.
• The UK produces over 9 billion drinks cans every year. 80% are made of aluminium.
• In the UK, the average household uses 144 meters of aluminium foil.
• High concentrations of aluminium are toxic to aquatic organisms.

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• On average, the UK household uses 500 glass bottles and jars every year.
• Glass can be recycled unlimited amounts of times without losing its quality.
• Glass is unable to decompose, putting a significant strain on landfill.
• It’s estimated more than 28 billion glass jars and bottles end up in landfill every year. 
• It consumes less energy to recycle glass than producing it from raw materials. 
• In the UK, we currently recycle around 60% of all glass containers, such as bottles and jars.
• Finland and Switzerland recycle 90% of their glass bottles and jars.
• A tonne of glass is required to make about 4000 bottles or jars.
• Empty glass containers can be reused into something useful or aesthetically pleasing.
• Transparent glass bottles contain about 25% recycled glass, while green bottles contain 90% recycled glass.

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• Approximately 2.5 billion coffee cups are used and thrown away each year in the UK.
• Coffee cups contain a polyethylene lining to build resistance against heat making them difficult to recycle.
• As recently as 2018, 99.75% of coffee cups in the UK were not being recycled
• Coffee cups can be reprocessed multiple times into high-quality paper, notebooks and cards. 
• The polyethylene extracted from coffee cups can be used to make a range of plastic products, such as reusable containers or garden furniture. 
• Coffee cups need to go through a specific process to remove the plastic lining from the virgin paper. 
• Coffee cups can be recycled at a majority of high street coffee store chains and fast-food restaurants.
• The UK set a target to recycle all single-use cups by 2023.
• Just 1 out of every 400 coffee cups is recycled at present.
• The London School Of Economics and Westminster University have reverse coffee cup vending machines which pay you for every coffee cup disposed of.
• Costa and Starbucks offer a 25p discount if you reuse cups. 

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• 15%-20% of all food bought is thrown away by the average UK household.
• Food can be recycled into a clean source of renewable energy using anaerobic digestion.
• Food waste can be used as high-quality fertiliser and provide plants with rich minerals. 
• Annually food loss accounts for about 4.4 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions
• 25% of the freshwater source worldwide is used to produce food that is never consumed.
• 8.4 million people are struggling to feed in the UK. In London, 1.5 million adults and 400,000 children face poverty.
• Potatoes are one of the most commonly wasted foods in the UK.
• 65% of UK adults admit to buying too much food –  Practice portion control to prevent food waste.
• Freeze your food by its use-by date, to expand its life span.
• One of the most common sources of water contamination is waste cooking oil.

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• Hazardous waste is any substance or chemical that may damage the environment.
• Manufacturing facilities, industrial operations and household products produce hazardous waste.
• There are four types of hazardous waste; Hazardous waste is reactive, ignitable, corrosive and toxic.
• Reactive wastes are those that, when heated, combined with water or compressed, can cause explosions.
• Ignitable wastes have flash points of less than 60 degrees Celsius.
• Corrosive wastes are liquids that can corrode containers of metal.
• Toxic waste can cause significant health issues when swallowed, inhaled or absorbed by the skin.
• Annually, more than 5.2 million tonnes of hazardous waste are produced in the UK
• Long-lasting effects of hazardous waste exposure on the human body are still unknown but have caused negative effects on our health and nature. 
• Not all hazardous waste can be recycled and must be disposed of properly to nullify environmental damage. 

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• The UK’s biggest consumer of natural resources is the construction industry.
• The construction sector in the UK contributes 400 million tonnes of material per year, which results in the production of 100 million tonnes of waste.
• Construction waste accounts for over a third of the UK’s waste, with a total of 25 million tonnes of building waste destined for landfills.
• Metal construction waste can be smelted into new products.
• Recycling construction waste costs less than sending it to landfills.
• Nearly all of your construction waste can be recycled, reused or recovered. 
• Broken glass cannot be recycled with your construction and & demolition waste. 
• Within the construction industry, 13% of waste is new, unused material.
• Around 92% of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste is recovered in some form.
• Masonry is crushed to make road bases, appliances such as sinks and baths can be refitted if they are still in good condition.

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• Used pizza boxes contaminated by food and grease do not get recycled.
• Recycling cardboard consumes 3/4 of the energy needed to make new cardboard.
• The United Kingdom has the highest cardboard recycling rate of any packaging in the world. Saving 2 million tonnes of waste from landfill every year.
• Cardboard is made from natural wood fibres which are 100% recyclable.
• Recycling 1 ton of cardboard can save 46 gallons of oil. 
• To allow the cardboard to be recycled easily, tape, polystyrene and plastic should be separated from the cardboard.
• Corrugated cardboard boxes are biodegradable and non-toxic.
• Corrugated cardboard boxes are composed of three different layers of brown kraft paper.
• 17 trees are rescued for every ton of cardboard that is recycled.
• The ‘Musee Du Cartonnage et de Imprimerie’ is a museum entirely dedicated to cardboard packaging.

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• Recycling your coffee grounds produces 80% less CO2 emissions than if they were sent to landfill.
• Coffee grounds can be repurposed into new sustainable products.
• Coffee grounds contain rich minerals which are perfect for fertilizing your garden and as natural cleaning scrub and can even exfoliate your skin. 
• Recycling coffee grounds is cheaper for your company than coffee grounds disposal within the general waste.
• Coffee grounds are high in calorific value, meaning they burn 20% hotter and longer than conventional dry wood fuels.
• The UK drinks 95 million cups of coffee a day.
• Coffee grounds dumped into general waste and sent to landfill will emit methane.
• Coffee grounds can repel pests from slugs, snails, and even cats. 
• Stored coffee grounds have a very long shelf and last for years. 
• Coffee grounds have proven to be quite effective in ridding your home of those not-so-nice odours.

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• When punctured batteries can leak harmful materials which contaminate our local soils, groundwater, and streams.
• In the UK every person in Britain uses around 10 batteries a year
• Lithium-ion batteries have been accused of triggering about 250 fires at waste facilities between April 2019 and March 2020
• The nickel recovered from batteries can be used to make steel, while lead is converted into ingots to produce new batteries.
• Battery acid can be recycled into sodium sulphate, which is used in laundry detergent and glass and textile manufacturing.
• Batteries do not need to be dead to be recycled. However, it’s desirable only to throw away your batteries when they can no longer be used in light of our sustainability values.
• People in the UK throw away 22,000 tonnes of batteries, only 45% of them are recycled properly 
• Retailers selling more than 32kg of batteries a year have to provide recycling bins or facilities.
• There are three differentiating recycling types; Lead-acid batteries, Silver oxide batteries and Lithium-ion batteries. 
• Rechargeable batteries consume less nonrenewable natural resources overall than disposable batteries.
• Batteries are the fastest degrading components in phones.

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• Two million tonnes of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) items are discarded every year.
• About 40% of WEEEE comprises big kitchen appliances (e.g. ovens, refrigerators, washing machines).
• Throughout their lives, the average UK resident can produce 3.3 tonnes of WEEE.
• 80 to 85% of electronic products were discarded in landfills or incinerators, which can emit hazardous toxins into the air. 
• About 1.8 million electronic devices are used annually in the UK, and less than 20% of the WEEE waste is recycled.
• It’s energy-efficient to reuse used computers, but only about 2% of PCs ever find their way to a second user.
• About 50 millions mobile phones are replaced every month globally, and just 10% are recycled.
• Studies indicate producing a computer and monitor takes at least 1.5 tonnes of water, 21 kilograms of chemicals and 240 kilograms of fossil fuels.
• Global WEEE waste is expected to grow by 8 per cent per year.
• Concentrations of precious minerals such as silver and gold are found in the bulk of WEEE waste.

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• Annually, over 1.1 billion inkjet cartridges are used around the world.
• In the UK alone, more than 65 million toners are sold each year, with just an estimated 30% being recycled or reused.
• Up to three pints of oil are used in the manufacture of a new toner cartridge.
• Every year, around, 350 million printer cartridges and toners are disposed of in landfills worldwide.
• It can take up to 1000 years for the plastic in ink toners to decompose.
• Laser toner cartridges are among the easiest office supplies to recycle and reuse.
• Manufacturing a single monochrome toner emits 5 kg of CO2 in the atmosphere.
• Customers will receive a 50p discount for every ink cartridge and toner recycled at Rymans.
• The toner (carbon black) has been classified as a potential carcinogenic.
• Toner and ink cartridges can be reused and recycled into the same streams present in DMR. However, the residual ink complicates the process and makes recycling and reusing them more difficult.

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