19% of the world's population does not get sufficient food to support adequately a working life? |
25% of world's population is without safe drinking water? |
21% of the world's population lives in cities with unacceptable levels of pollution? |
Using a hose to wash your car wastes up to 300 litres or 33 bucketsful of water |
Domestic energy consumers spend approximately two-thirds of their total annual energy bill in the winter months |
About a third of household waste is kitchen and garden waste – help reduce it by adding vegetable peelings and fruit skins to your compost heap |
Running the tap can use 10-14 litres of water a minute - which would give enough for a small bath in just 5 minutes |
Extracting, processing, transporting and distributing fossil fuels also releases greenhouse gases |
Up to 23% of heat lost from a home can be through windows. Double glazing can reduce this loss by up to 50% |
15% of the earth's land surface is affected by human-induced soil degradation |
21% of the world's population lives in cities with unacceptable levels of pollution |
Recycling aluminium can bring energy savings of up to 95%, reduces import costs, and produces 95% less greenhouse gas emissions than when it is produced from raw materials |
One drip per second wastes around 1200 litres of water in a year; that’s around 4 litres a day; and 90 litres of water if the drips are breaking into a stream |
Washing a mug under a running tap uses about a litre of water; six mugs use about the same as a whole bowl of washing up |
A double-decker bus carries the same number of people as 20 fully occupied cars |
Lighting accounts for 10-15% of the electricity bill |
We use around 155 litres of water each day on average, which is 70% more than 30 years ago. That’s around 1600 pints of water each week |
19% of the world's population does not get sufficient food to support adequately a working life |
Glass packaging makes up about 9% by weight of the average household dustbin but accounts for over 70% by weight of packaging recycled from the total waste stream |
The average family uses the equivalent of two baths of water per day when flushing the toilet |
True or False? You should camp at least 20 feet away from a water source. Answer: True |
Only use the washing machine or dishwasher when you have a full load. If you have an economy cycle, then use this |
25% of world's population is without safe drinking water |
25% of world's species are likely to be extinct by 2005 |
Recycling aluminum requires 90-95% less energy than mining and processing bauxite ore (the source of aluminum) |
Boiling a kettle half full instead of full four times a day could save you enough electricity to power a TV set for four hours |
A third of the dustbin is paper – ask your dentist or doctor if they would like old magazines for their waiting room and support paper recycling schemes |
A garden sprinkler uses 1,000 litres of water an hour- that’s nearly one pint for every 2 seconds it is in operation |
About 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging (worth £8 million) is wasted each year. Only 3,000 tonnes is recycled (worth £1.2 million) |
In half an hour, a garden sprinkler uses as much water as a family of four in a day |
Replacing a boiler that is over 15 years old, or unreliable, could save 10-15% on fuel bills |
Producing steel from recycled materials saves 75 per cent of the energy needed to make steel from virgin materials |
Cavity wall insulation reduces heat loss through walls by up to 60%, and saves up to 35% on fuel bills |
Up to 90% of new glass can be made from reclaimed scrap glass, which saves energy and raw materials |
The world has lost 20% of its forests since 1700 |
Of the 2.4 million tonnes of plastic waste, an estimated 1,400,000 tonnes is household plastic waste, 200,000 tonnes is ‘process scrap’, and 800,000 tonnes is commercial waste. 61% of the total plastic waste from Western Europe is packaging, which typically has a ‘life’ of less then 12 months. |
The iron and steel industry reports that by recycling nearly 300 million tonnes of scrap each year, they do not have to extract 475 million tonnes of natural iron ore. They estimate this saves the energy equivalent of 160 million tonnes of hard coal. (UNEP) |
According to UNEP, the aluminium industry reports that recycled metal now satisfies about a third of world demand for aluminium. It says that total recycling of aluminium in the form of beverage cans show rates that range from 79% in Japan and 78% in Brazil to 62% in the US and 41% in Europe. |
Increased economic activity and associated rise in consumption means waste generation rates continue to increase worldwide. “Throw away” products are produced with little consideration of sustainable development beyond short-term economic gain. |
According to the UN 41 per cent of the world's population, some 2.3bn people, live in 'water-stressed' areas - where water shortages are frequent. |
In 2002, water shortages killed over 7m people. |
By 2025, the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 per cent more than is currently available, causing two in every three people on the planet to face water scarcity. |
According to the UN, about 1.2bn people worldwide drink polluted water, causing hundreds of millions of cases of water-related diseases every year and over 5m deaths - ten times the number of people killed in wars worldwide. |
6,000 children die every day from drinking polluted water. |
