View Full Version : Season of bad will
Bonkers Mad!!!
23-12-06, 04:04 PM
The UK waste fallout from 25 December 2006
* More than a billion Christmas cards - 17 for every man, woman and child - will be delivered this year. That's enough to stretch around the world five times.
* 52 square miles of wrapping paper - enough to gift-wrap Jersey - will be ripped off by Boxing Day.
* 125,000 tons of plastic packaging - equal to a million John Prescotts - will end up in the bin.
* Six million trees have been bought but only 1.2 million will be recycled. The rest will be left to rot or be thrown away.
* Shops sell 16 million turkeys and 830 million sprouts. Up to 40 per cent of festive food is wasted.
* Turkey foil wrap will create 3,000 tons of waste.
* Within three months, 41 per cent of the toys children receive will be broken. Most will go to the tip.
* Many will get the latest mobile phone but only 10 to 15 per cent are recycled
SOURCE (http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2097768.ece)
:( They really are terrible stats, BM :(
We always recycle our cards, wrap, tree and mobiles :)
well thats got me thinking will have to be more careful this year although i do recycle most things ive never bothered to recycle mobile phones they are usually just thrown in a drawer and forgotten :blush:
dollyshell
23-12-06, 05:06 PM
Blimey, I never realised so much stuff gets wasted! :blink:
We try to recycle the cards we don't want to keep but have been told we can't recycle any that have glitter or "foil" on them, so that doesn't leave many really!
It's scary to think how much is actually wasted over the Christmas period, both in terms of money and goods! :wacko:
marieuk
23-12-06, 05:12 PM
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bonkers Mad!!! @ 23rd December 2006 - 3:03 PM) 220582</div>The UK waste fallout from 25 December 2006
* More than a billion Christmas cards - 17 for every man, woman and child - will be delivered this year. That's enough to stretch around the world five times.
* 52 square miles of wrapping paper - enough to gift-wrap Jersey - will be ripped off by Boxing Day.
* 125,000 tons of plastic packaging - equal to a million John Prescotts - will end up in the bin.
* Six million trees have been bought but only 1.2 million will be recycled. The rest will be left to rot or be thrown away.
* Shops sell 16 million turkeys and 830 million sprouts. Up to 40 per cent of festive food is wasted.
* Turkey foil wrap will create 3,000 tons of waste.
* Within three months, 41 per cent of the toys children receive will be broken. Most will go to the tip.
* Many will get the latest mobile phone but only 10 to 15 per cent are recycled
SOURCE (http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2097768.ece)[/b]
What frightening stats BM :o
Love Muk xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Planet 24
23-12-06, 08:10 PM
One of the presents I bought for Mr. P who is a very keen gardener is a large multi compost bin - which takes most household waste and recycles it as compost.
He is using it already and I can see the difference in the amount of rubbish I'm putting out in just one day. :)
:bigeyes: what an eye opener :(
seel old phones on ebay or take them to your charity shop :)
christmas cards can be cut up for gift tags to be used next year and then the backs can go in the green bin if you are worried about the glitter, or you can take them to Boots, they normally do a card recyle bin :)
if your envelopes have addresses on them you can shred them and add them to your compost bin (top pressies P24 :thumbs: ) or put then in the recy bin
dont forget to compost your peelings from your veggies too!
wrapping paper can be recyled aswell
you can always ask your local council if they can provide you with an extra green bin if they offer that service :)
and ask the council where they are shredding their old christmas trees, they can be turned into compost or mulch
better still if your tree has roots plant it!!
sesentayuno
23-12-06, 10:15 PM
Shocking but feels good that I do recycle all my wrapping paper.
Ses
coppernob
23-12-06, 10:22 PM
That is scarey! Our local paper are doing a twelve days of christmas thing, everyday they feature a different charity which takes your old phones, furniture etc, apparently, every old mobile is worth £5 to places like hospices etc.,.
crystalgazer
27-12-06, 03:43 PM
Until the government makes recycling mandatory, and enforces it properly, I fear it won't get any better. My new Year's resolution at the beginning of this year was to stop being judgmental...it lasted all of a day (when the bin men came). I had been sitting drinking a cuppa, enjoying the view out of my window, when I noticed the NFH putting out their binbags. They'd both come out, carrying 2 apiece. So far, so normal (for them, they never recycle anything). They came out again, 2 bags each. I was amazed, but thought that was it. :( After the 3rd trip out, I my ghast was well and truly flabbered. :unsure: After that, it got a bit hysterical, :blink: as I watched with morbid fascination and horrified, yet another trip, 2 bags each. In the end, they'd contributed 26 :o (yes, TWENTY-SIX)black bin bags to the pile. I guess you could say my New Year's resolution didn't last very long.
crystalgazer
27-12-06, 03:48 PM
I should mention that I am an avid recycler of everything possible - despite the fact that we do not have a huge space to store 2 weeks worth of paper, plastic, glass, etc, and we have a wormery, which means (sorry, it's not meant to sound smug) that our family of four only has to put out a 3/4 full black bag every week.