Did you know

Paper

• Paper makes up to 70 per cent of office waste.

Landfill Waste & Recycling

• We produce and use about 7 trillion plastic bags per year (these bags last anything form 20 to 1,000 years).
• The Styrofoam cups used every year would circle the planet at least five times, they are not biodegradable and are rarely recycled.
• Recycling an aluminium can uses only 5% of the energy required to make a new one. Recycling glass uses 26% of the energy. Every tonne of paper recycled saves almost 13 trees, 4,100 kilowatts of electricity and more than 30,000 litres of water.
• Daily worldwide sales figures of biros exceed 14 million: A plastic pen in landfill will still be there in 50,000 years.

Cigarettes

• Contain some 3,900 chemicals (many of which are dangerous to humans and living organisms). Filters are designed to trap some of the more dangerous by-products making the butt a poisonous pellet.
• Butts take 15 years to break down in our climate. Most butts are washed into stormwater drains and end up in the ocean.
• 4.5 trillion butts are littered worldwide each year.

Little Known Facts

• Standard plastic bags last for thousands of years in the environment
• Glass bottles can take one million years to biodegrade
• A disposable nappy can take 300 million years to decompose naturally
• A plastic bottle or ink cartridge can last indefinitely
• Mobile phones and iPods are made from metals that do not biodegrade at all

Home and Office

• An unplugged mobile phone charger wastes 95% of the energy used doing nothing.
• Leaving the lights on, combined with computers left on standby, can double a companys energy bill. Lights left on generate unnecessary heat, requiring the air-conditioner to work overtime, using even more electricity.
• An ordinary incandescent bulb converts most of the energy into heat not light. An energy efficient bulb can use up to 80% less energy and lasts about 8 times longer. Although it costs about 10 times more than an ordinary $1 bulb it will save over $80 in electricity.

"Developed countries represent 25% of the global population but use 80% of its resources and produce 75% of its waste."

GREEN ENERGY WA

Story thanks to Green Biz Check