Every year an estimated 11 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected around the world. Much of this is thrown into landfill or washes out into the oceans.
We are increasingly urged to recycle more of our plastics, glass, paper and electronics in an effort to reduce all this waste being dumped. But it can be confusing to know exactly what can be recycled and what can't.
The BBC has written extensively about what can and can't be recycled, but here are three facts you might not know about recycling.
- There's gold in them phones
Every year, entire mountains of electronic waste are thrown away globally – in 2019, 53.6 million tonnes of unwanted smartphones, computers, televisions, and other household appliances were discarded. It's the equivalent of 350 Queen Mary 2 cruise ships being thrown away and weighs more than all the adults in Europe put together. And those mountains are growing all the time – they are projected to reach 74 million tonnes by 2030.
But inside each of these discarded devices are surprising amounts of precious metals – including gold, silver and platinum – that are going to waste. Just 17.4% of electronic waste is collected and recycled, according to the UN's Global E-waste Monitor.
If you were to extract the valuable metals from one tonne of smartphones you would be left holding 70kg (154lbs) of copper, 15kg (33lbs) of lithium, 1kg (2.2lbs) of silver and 235g (8.2oz) of gold. That is enough gold to make somewhere between 26-78 wedding rings.
(Find out more about the precious metals hidden around your home in this article by Tim Smedley.)
- You don't have to scrub your recycling clean
Most recycling facilities will wash recycling and put it through what is known as an "extrusion process" to suck out any impurities that might get into materials such as plastic. Provided you aren't throwing away anything with "3D food", as BBC journalist Will Park explains, you should be fine – no need to worry about sauces, oil and stains.
Similarly, you don't need to worry about removing plastic caps, but if it is a metal cap for a wine or beer bottle, then put it into your recycling bins separately. Oh, and it's fine to leave the label on.
- Recycling cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 700 million tonnes a year
Recycling is good for the climate. But it's not a simple equation – some recycling processes produce greenhouse gases of their own. Still, recycling also reduces the need to use new natural resources, including the fossil fuels that are used to make most plastics. For every tonne of paper recycled, for example, 17 trees can be saved and water used in manufacturing is cut by 50%.
It is estimated that recycling has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of 10.4-11.2Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions between 2020-2050, which would be equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide Japan emits in a year.
There are gains to be made from what we do with our food too. Around 17% of food in shops, restaurants and in homes globally is thrown away rather than eaten each year. This enormous waste contributes to about 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions as it rots, according to the UN Environment Programme.
Composting reduces the carbon emissions associated with food by 14% compared to dumping it into landfill. And keeping leftovers to eat later rather than binning them can reduce that further.
Read this smart guide to food waste by Kelly Oakes to find out more.
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How recycling can help the climate and other facts - BBC
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