While we all know that waste is an important and urgent world issue, we may be unaware of its scale or impact. As sustainable recyclers of paper, textile and IT/media waste, we are using this blog post to highlight facts and statistics that relate to those waste streams.
Facts About Paper Waste
Despite the term “The Paperless Office” being first used in 1978, paper is still playing a significant role in commerce 45 years later.
- It still accounts for 50% of all business waste by volume
- More than 199 tonnes of paper are produced every 15 seconds
- European paper mills consume on average 2,700 litres of water for every tonne of paper produced
- Based on that average, the paper industry consumes 35,820 litres of water per second
- Pulp and paper are the world’s third-largest polluter of air, water and soil
- Paper rotting in landfill emits methane gas, which is 25 times more toxic than carbon dioxide
- Paper recycling saves about 1,400 litres of oil, 26,500 litres of water and 17 trees per tonne of paper
SECURALL® is our confidential document shredding service, offering secure destruction of documents containing personal data or sensitive information to the healthcare, education, legal, financial and commercial sectors. All our shredded paper is recycled, reducing the demand for virgin pulp from new trees and promoting our “zero waste-to-landfill” policy.
Facts About Textile Waste
We are manufacturing, using and discarding more textiles than at any other time in history. In 2019, Oxfam reported some sobering facts about textile waste:
- The world uses an estimated 80 billion pieces of clothing every year, a 400 percent increase from two decades ago. (The True Cost)
- Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined. (House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2019)
- The fashion industry produces 20% of global wastewater. The Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) anticipate that water use will increase by 50% by 2030 (Fashion United)
- By 2030, global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63%, from 62 million tons today to 102 million tons—equivalent to more than 500 billion additional T-shirts. (House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2019)
- Clothing companies create more than 1 million garments every day. (Greenpeace)
- Fast fashion emissions will grow by 50% by 2030, if current growth continues. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)
- The average consumer now buys 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago. (The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion)
- In the UK, we buy more clothes per person than any other country in Europe. Around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up in household black bins every year, sent to landfill or incinerators. Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing at the end of its life. (House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2019)
- Buying just one white cotton shirt produces the same amount of emissions as driving 35 miles in a car. (WRAP)
- Extending the life of clothes by just 9 months of active use would reduce carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30% each. (WRAP)
Well-meaning initiatives to donate used clothing to developing countries have resulted in such high volumes of unwanted garments being sent to landfill in those countries that it has created a whole new environmental crisis. It’s therefore imperative that we find more effective ways of reducing the amount of textiles we produce and consume.
Recycling also reduces the volume that goes to landfill, produces yarns that can be used to manufacture new textiles and extends the life of the fibres by repurposing them into new products.
SECUREBRAND® is our specialised secure textile recycling and destruction service, created to help organisations, authorities and businesses safeguard the public and protect their brands while providing a sustainable “zero waste-to-landfill” alternative.
Facts About E-Waste
The unrelenting rise in consumer and business electronics is creating an environmental crisis of massive proportions.
- In the 2010s, the UK produced 3,865,439.761 tonnes of e-waste, enough to build two-thirds of the Great Pyramid of Giza. (Environment Agency)
- Discarded e-waste contains precious and finite resources such as gold, copper, and cobalt. Disposing rather than recycling it means we lose these resources at an estimated material value of £46bn. (World Economic Forum, 2019)
- Many of these resources are primarily mined in regions of political instability such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where mining has for many decades financed brutal conflicts, exploited labour (including child labour), and led to large-scale environmental pollution. (Ethical Consumer)
- In 2019, 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste were generated globally. Of this, only 9.3 million tonnes (or 17% of the total) were recorded as collected and recycled. (Global E-Waste Monitor, 2020)
The World Counts also reports some alarming facts about e-waste:
- The global volume of e-waste generated globally – about 40 million tonnes – is like throwing away 800 laptops every second
- 300 million computers and 1 billion mobile phones are produced annually; this figure is expected to grow by 8% each year
- Incinerating or sending e-waste to landfill releases harmful toxins into the environment, including mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, chromium, and flame retardants
- One of these substances – lead – can damage the kidneys and central nervous system, and affect child mental development even in small doses
- Much of the e-waste exported to Asia is processed in unsafe environments where workers – often children – are unprotected from the toxic substances and paid on average only $1.50 per day
SECURETECH® is our specialised IT and media recycling service. Fully compliant with WEEE regulations, we responsibly and safely separate e-waste into its recyclable components to prevent any going to landfill and harvest valuable resources for reuse. This service also provides secure destruction of any components that may contain personal data or sensitive information, ensuring full compliance with GDPR and protecting our clients’ commercial interests.
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