Recycling Articles : Why We Are A Wasteful Society

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With the government and local councils highlighting the fact that we in the UK produce an amazing amount of rubbish every single year it has come to light that in fact we waste around 7% of our annual pay on items that we don’t really need.

The average person will indeed waste around £1,725 on things such as food that we end up throwing away uneaten, luxury goods that we have rarely or never used, gadgets that we have bought and items for hobbies that we have gotten bored with.

The amount of waste is enormous and the biggest contributing factor to this is uneaten food, food that’s has been wasted. The biggest majority of foods wasted include take aways that were over ordered and cannot be finished, frozen foods that have got out of date, and fresh bagged fruit which has gone off and surprisingly enough this is on a regular basis and is something which a lot of people admit to doing.

The main reason behind why so much food is wasted is that the majority of people buy foods which are said to be good for them such as fresh fruit and veg only to leave them in favour of other more convenient foods.

The second biggest reason was people ordering take away food, with milk, bread and cheese following behind. All this is thought to add up to around £425 per person per year, not including the cost of the council having to dispose of it.

£378 per year is wasted on hobbies and sports that we simply don’t keep up due to getting bored with them, this includes paying for such items as sports equipment, membership dues to clubs, course materials and DIY products.

This is followed by £240 spent on such items as videos and DVD’s that we don’t watch books that we don’t read, shoes that we only wear once and silly gadgets that we buy on impulse only to put in a drawer and never use again.

All of this when combined makes it easy to see why the amount of rubbish or waste that we throw away is on the increase each and every year.

Even more worryingly when asked about this over 16% of people said they hadn’t realised this and were embarrassed by their waste. One third of people said they didn’t care, around 4% admitted that they had no control over their spending as they could afford it and sadly 13% of people admitted that they actually derive pleasure from wasting things.

However with the introduction of stricter measures by the government and local councils with the introduction of fines and penalties maybe now more people will sit up and begin to realise they must change their ways. If not for the better of the environment but to save money on the fines they will be given if they continue in their ways.

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