This document summarizes statistics related to waste and materials usage. It notes that the world consumes 45-60 billion tonnes of raw materials each year to produce goods for 7 billion people. Only 115 million tonnes of materials gets recycled in the UK each year, leaving just 55 years' worth of raw materials left if consumption continues at the current rate. It promotes reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling materials through initiatives like Freegle, which has over 1.4 million UK members reusing resources through its online groups. Freegle's South West region alone has over 123,000 members across 41 local groups.

2. Wasted
Cat Fletcher
• Brighton Community & Voluntary Sector
Environment Rep
• Brighton Waste House Resource coordinator
• Head of Media for Freegle UK
• Freegle Brighton Group
• Brighton One Planet Living Strategy

3. The world
consumes
45-60 billion
tonnes
of raw materials
every year.

4. to make
For 7
billion
people

5. About 600 million
tonnes of products
& materials
enter the UK
economy
each year.
Only 115 million
tonnes gets recycled.

6. 55 Years worth of raw materials left
if we keep making so much stuff.
2009 New Scientist published data

7. The Waste Hierarchy

8. New Waste Hierarchy

9. Reuse creates more jobs
25 jobs
2-4 jobs
1 job

10. RETHINK
Redesign
REDUCE
Repurpose
REUSE
Restore
REPAIR
Renovate
REPROCESS
Recycle

12. 8 million tonnes
wood is thrown out
every year in UK.
80% is reusable but
is
not reused.

13. Brighton
Wood
Recycling
Store
collects
450 tonnes of
wood each
year.

14. 56 million litres of paint
purchased every year in UK
- is never actually used.

15. Newlife Paint in West Sussex reprocessed ~100 tonnes
of waste paint in 2009 to make new recycled paint.

16. By 2020 UK waste electrical & electronic equipment
(WEEE) = 12+million tonnes.
Including precious metals worth £7 billion.

17. Each person in the UK buys 3 new electrical
items each year –that’s 173 million nationally.

18. 83% of sofas taken to tips are reusable
but are not re-used.
Most reusable sofas are buried or burnt.
Crazy

19. Doubling the number of sofas re-used in UK
every year could save
52,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

20. 500
billion
plastic
bags
are used
globally
EVERY
YEAR
about
10
billion
in the
UK.

21. 254 plastic bags
were given out by
UK businesses
every second
of
every day in 2011.
2 seconds worth to
make these

25. Don’t throw it away. Give it away.
www.ilovefreegle.org
1.4 million UK members
reusing resources

26. Furniture, IT,
Bikes, TVs,
White Goods,
Electronics,
Beds, Tools,
Household, DIY www.ilovefreegle.org
materials,
Books, Phones,
Garden bits,
Clothes, Arts,
Crafts, Boxes,
Books, Office
stuff, Cars,
Food, Toys,
Camping
gear……

27. 41 SW Freegle groups-124K members
Axe, Seat `n` Lyme Freegle: 260 Plymouth Freegle: 776
Purbeck Freegle: 724
Bath Freegle: 11,435
St Austell Freegle: 369
Bournemouth Freegle: 15,531
Stroud Freegle: 5,386
Bradford on Avon Freegle: 4,791
Swindon Freegle: 89
Bristol Freegle: 1,621 Taunton Freegle: 759
Burnham on Sea Freegle: 59 Teignbridge Freegle: 2,855
Camborne Redruth Freegle: 2,582 Tewkesbury Freegle: 2,720
Torbay Freegle: 553
Chard, Beaminster and Bridport Freegle: 2,064
Torridge Freegle: 195
Chippenham Freegle: 3,463 Truro Freegle: 9,917
Dartmouth and Kingsbridge Freegle: 1,069
Wadebridge Freegle: 3,411
Warminster Freegle: 2,703
Dursley Freegle: 1,167
Waste Not, Want Not, Christchurch: 344
Exeter Freegle: 579
Falmouth Freegle: 7,950 Waste Not, Want Not, North Dorset: 2,893
Gloucester Freegle: 7,473 Waste Not, Want Not, Poole: 7,293
Hayle and St Ives Freegle: 2,066 Waste Not, Want Not, Weymouth and
11,612
Helston Freegle: 2,223 Dorchester:
Kennet and Avon Canal Freegle: 28 Weston Freegle: 281
Wimborne Freegle: 2,316
Mid Devon Freegle (Tiverton, Crediton): 721
Yeovil Freegle: 260
North Dartmoor Freegle: 205
North Devon Freegle: 517 http://www.ilovefreegle.org/groups/south-west 123,929
Penzance Freegle: 2,669

28. Waste
is just a resource in the
wrong place.
Support Freegle
• Use the local group
• Promote local group
• Link on website
• Refer bulky waste
enquiries
• Inform staff