Key facts

You'll find a selection of useful facts in this section.

Agriculture & Horticulture
4.5 million tonnes of separately collected waste was composted in the UK in 2007/2008.
That’s a nine per cent increase on previous year's figures.
Around 600,000 tonnes of extra composting production capacity is expected to become available in the next five years.
Currently, 85 per cent of all material composted is garden waste.
Construction
We have over 700 signatories to Halving Waste to Landfill.
Figures from the Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal show that from 2008 to 2009 there was an absolute decrease in waste to landfill. Find out more ...
Contractors signed up to Halving Waste to Landfill that have set a reporting baseline (in either 2008 or 2009) have a combined total annual spend of approximately £24bn. This represents a quarter of the UK construction market, and includes 32 of Construction News magazine’s 2010 top 50 contractors.
By supporting signatories to embed good practice waste to landfill requirements within their contractual documents WRAP has influenced projects with a construction value of £38 billion.
Corporate
Since WRAP started work in 2001, there is now an extra 5.8 million tonnes of recycling processing capacity in the UK, there has been £182 million of new investment in the recycling sector, and the annual turnover of the UK recycling sector has more than doubled to £1.3 billion.
Individuals
We throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink per year in the UK
Most of this (4.4 million tonnes) could have been consumed. That’s like filling 4,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.
In terms of environmental impact producing, storing and getting the food and drink to our homes uses a lot of energy.
If we stopped wasting all this food and drink, it would save the equivalent of at least 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s like taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads.
Local authorities
90% of local authorities have received support from WRAP.
The top 20 performing waste collection authorities all run an alternate weekly collection service (based on 2007/08 recycling rates).
Retail supply chain
UK households dispose of around 4.9 million tonnes of packaging and 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink waste every year.
Reducing waste and using fewer natural resources is a powerful way of making a contribution towards reducing climate change and delivering a sustainable future.
Recycling industry
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Link to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign site.

Small electrical item	Typical weight (kg)	Typical plastic content (kg)	Typical metal content (kg)	No. of yoghurt pots that could be made from that weight of plastic	No. of steel cans that could be made from that weight of metal
Kettle	0.808	0.395	0.469	79	8
Toaster	2.019	0.383	1.408	76	25
Iron	1.386	0.477	0.720	95	13
Electric toothbrush	0.109	0.050	0.031	10	0
Shaver	0.204	0.076	0.091	15	1.5
Hairdryer	0.497	0.202	0.109	40	2
Ghetto blaster	3.068	1.339	0.604	267	11
Games console	1.718	0.697	0.510	139	9

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Relearning to reuse: Getting the most out of scarce resources.