who makes rubbish?
Everybody makes rubbish. Each week the average family in a developed country gets through 4 glass bottles or jars, 13 cans, 3 plastic bottles and 5 kilograms of paper. That means that every day, a total of about 8,000 tonnes of rubbish is thrown away by families in England and Wales – that amount of rubbish is the same weight as 1,600 African elephants! The amount of rubbish is growing every year, the total waste in England increased by 1.4% to 29.1million tonnes in 2006/07 compared to 2005/06. But, the good news is that more of this is being recycled than ever before. Household recycling and composting rates in England increased to 31% in 2006/7 from 27% in 2005/6. (statistics from defra.gov.uk) However, this still leaves a lot of rubbish that we have to burn (incinerate) or bury (landfill).
