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Quick facts and figures

 

Metals

Paper

  • There are 40,000 A4 sheets in one tonne of paper.
  • Recycling one tonne of paper and cardboard saves approximately 13 trees.
  • It requires approximately 3 cubic metres of landfill space to dispose of 1 tonne of paper.
  • Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil. http://www.buyrecycled.com/questions.htm
  • Approximately 600,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard are sent to landfill in NSW each year. www.wrapp.nsw.gov.au
  • Every 100 reams of recycled office paper that is printed double sided saves 2 trees, more than a tonne of greenhouse gas and almost a cubic metre of landfill space. (Green Office Guide, 2001)
  • 240,000 tonnes of high value printing and writing paper is still disposed to landfill each year in New South Wales.
  • Producing paper from recovered fibres consumes 60% less energy and 55% less water than manufacturing paper from virgin pulp. (Know you Paper Guide, NSW EPA 2004)
  • Recycled paper creates 74% less air pollution, & 35% less water pollution. (The Recycler Trade Magazine, Issue 138, 2004)

Glass

  • Using recycled materials for glass production saves energy and resources; each tonne of glass saves 1.1 tonnes of raw materials.
  • Glass can be recycled over and over again, it does not deteriorate with recycling.
  • The energy saving from recycling one glass bottle will: operate a 100-watt light bulb for four hours www.epa.gov/wastewise/wrr/factoid.htm, power a computer for 25 minutes, power a colour TV for 20 minutes, or power a washing machine for 10 minutes. http://www.britglass.co.uk/index.htm
  • Australia manufactures more than 1 million tonnes of glass per annum. Only about one third of this is recycled.
  • Switzerland has the highest glass recycling rate in the world, recycling 91%.
  • Recycled glass requires approximately 40% less energy than glass made from virgin material. http://www.visy.com.au

Plastics

  • Plastics are made from oil and other fossil fuels. www.wasteservice.nsw.gov.au  
  • Australians produce more than 1.3 million tonnes of plastic every year - more than 71 kg for every person.
  • 69% of plastic waste comes from two categories: packaging and materials handling.
  • Recycling one tonne of plastics saves enough energy to run a refrigerator for a month.
  • Recycling 41 plastic bottles saves enough energy to run a refrigerator for one hour.
  • It takes 125 recycled plastic milk bottles to manufacture a 140 litre wheelie bin from recycled plastic. http://www.visy.com.au  
  • Plastics degrade each time they are recycled as the polymer chains break down, limiting the number of times they can be recycled.  Polyethylene teraphthalate (PET) degrades after about five melting cycles. http://www.grrn.org/resources/terrain.html
  • Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture plastic from virgin materials.
  • Five 2-litre recycled PET bottles produce enough fibre-fill to make a ski jacket. www.epa.gov/wastewise/wrr/factoid.htm
  • Milk bottles (made from HDPE) are one of the main plastics collected at kerbside and are the most sought after waste in the plastics recycling chain. Nearly half of all the plastic milk bottles produced in Australia are now recycled. One of the main end uses is the large plastic wheelie bin (or mobile garbage bin). (NSW EPA 2005)
  • The production of two plastic bags uses 990 kJ of natural gas, 240 kJ of petroleum, and 160 kJ of coal.  The energy used for two plastic bags is 1,470 kJ.  http://www.ilea.org/lcas/franklin1990.html
  • Australians consume approximately 6.9 billion plastic bags, or 36,850 tonnes of plastic, each year - this equates to just under one bag per person per day.  About 53% of plastic bags are distributed from supermarkets, while 47% come from smaller retail outlets.
  • The energy consumed by driving a car one kilometre is the equivalent of manufacturing 8.7 plastic bags. http://www.abs.gov.au
  • Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
  • It takes 5 PET bottles to make 1 square foot of polyester carpet.
  • It takes 2 plastic soft drink bottles to make enough polyester fibre for a baseball cap.
  • The energy saved by recycling 1 plastic drink bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.
  • http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/entries/2004/bristol_whitehead/facts.htm

Waste

  • Per person, Australians use more than their average body weight (90 kg) of packaging each year. Residents of EU countries use approximately half this, 48 kg of packaging per year per person.
  • Overall, Australian's recycle only 20% of our packaging waste. www.boomerangalliance.org
  • More than 500,000 vehicles enter the waste stream each year.
  • Each year, approximately 18 million used passenger tyres weighing 170,000 tonnes are disposed of around Australia. Around 57% are disposed of in landfill.
  • It is estimated that to incinerate 10,000 tonnes of waste creates one job, to landfill 10,000 tonnes of waste creates 6 jobs, and to recycle 10,000 tonnes of waste creates 36 jobs. (The Recycler issue 146, April 2005)

Ewaste

  • An old Colour cathode ray tube (CRTs) computer monitor contains between 2 and 4 kg of lead. A large TV can contain over 5 kg. http://www.caudit.edu.au  
  • The manufacture of one desktop computer & 17 inch cathode ray tube (CRT) requires approximately 240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals, & 1500kg water.
  • 1.7kg fossil fuels & chemicals, & 32kg of water are used to produce a single 2g 23B dynamic RAM memory chip.
  • There are estimated to be approximately 20 million obsolete PCs in Australia.
  • Australian Reseller News, March 24, 2004
  • Australians buy almost 2.5 million computers and more than an million televisions every year.  http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/eve/ewaste 

Print cartridges

  • Australians purchase approximately 4 million toner cartridges and 12 million ink cartridges each year. Laid end to end this would stretch from Sydney to Hobart.
  • In Australia approximately 3 million toner cartridges end up in landfill every year.
  • All new cartridges are imported - and only 10 to 15% are remanufactured in Australia.
  • Toner cartridges vary in size, but on average contain approximately 1kg of plastic, 250g of Aluminium, and can contain up to 3 litres of 'embodied' oil. An  empty cartridge weighs between .5 - 3.5 kg.
  • It is estimated a laser cartridge will take up to 450 years to decompose in landfill.  www.acra.org.au

Transport

  • 65% of Australian freight is transported by road.
  • Every working day, governments across Australia spend approximately A$30 million building and maintaining roads.
  • The NSW Department of Planning estimates that 33% of all car trips are less than 3 km, and that 55% are less than 5 km.
  • 75 per cent of Australians use a car to get to work and 12 per cent use public transport. Nationally 5 per cent walk or cycle to work and in Sydney 6 per cent walk or cycle to work. www.ago.gov.au
  • The creation of a standard car tyre uses 27kg of raw material and 584L of water.  In the process, it produces 4.4kg of waste and 13.5kg of materials extracted but not used. (Waste Management and Environment Magazine, March 2004)

Energy and Greenhouse

  • Transport accounts for 14% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, energy (mostly electricity generation) accounts for 50%, agriculture 16% and waste 3%.
  • Almost half a kilogram of black coal is burned to supply one kilowatt-hour of electricity- enough to run a single bar radiator for one hour, a 100 watt light globe for 10 hours, or an energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb for 50 hours.
  • Over its life, a typical compact fluorescent bulb saves around a third of a tonne of greenhouse gas and $45 in electricity costs.
  • Every 15 litres of hot water used from an electric water heater generates about one kilogram of greenhouse gas.
  • A laptop computer used 5 hours each day generates around 40 kilograms of greenhouse gas each year. Desktop computers used the same way can generate between 200 and 500 kilograms. More than half of this is from using the monitor.
  • Many appliances now use electricity even when they're doing little or nothing. Over the whole year, some microwave ovens generate more greenhouse gas running the digital clock than cooking food. www.ago.gov.au

 


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