Every year, 8 billion plastic bags are given away by supermarkets and shops. This is equivalent to over 130 bags for every person in the UK. These will take up to 450 years to degrade.
A forest as big as Wales is needed every year to supply all the paper for the UK.
The average person throws away 74kgs of organic waste a year, equivalent to 1077 banana skins.
3.2 billion aluminium cans are still going into landfill (approximately 50,000 tonnes), equivalent to burying the Titanic every year.
Bolton Thermal Recovery Facility (TRF) is
an integral part of Greater Manchester's waste management solution,
following a multi-million pound improvement programme prior
to becoming fully operational later this year.
In handling over 125,000 tonnes of Bolton's
waste each year, the TRF generates a total of 10 MW of renewable
energy to be fed into the national grid (equivalent to the energy
needed to heat 7,000 homes). A proposed district heating plan
could eventually service local residents, replacing any fossil
fuels that they are currently burning. Steel will also be recovered
for recycling at the TRF, with an opportunity to recycle the
residual ash in construction projects.
State of the art gas cleaning and purification
equipment has reduced emissions to below current &
draft European and Environment Agency regulations, making
this one of the cleanest installations of its kind.
In addition to the energy and materials
recovery, the reopening of Bolton TRF will dramatically
reduce the amount of road vehicle movements which would
be needed to transfer the waste to landfill.
