Monday 3 June 2019

London could rebuild The Shard out of recycled plastic – five times over

Last year, London recycled an amount of plastic equivalent to five times the size of the Shard.

That's according to a collection of data released by The Body Shop, which shows the capital recycled or reused a total of 63,969 tonnes of plastic, equivalent to 5,000 double decker buses or double the size of Wembley Stadium.

This made up around 11% of the UK’s plastic recycling efforts, which added up to 602,493 tonnes across the entire country.

The nation achieved a household waste recycling rate of 43.2% in 2018, 9% up on 2008 and 32% more than in 2000.

The North of England sent more than 81,000 tonnes of plastic waste to be recycled between April 2017 and March 2018, equivalent to 24 Blackpool Towers or 212 Angels of North.

Wale's Severn Bridge weighs a total of 25,000 tonnes - at 43,877 tonnes, the amount of plastic waste sent to be recycled in the country over the period would have roughly doubled its size.

Wales contributed to 7% of the total amount of plastic recycled across the UK during the timeframe - its recycling rate is 57.6%, 12% higher than the recycling rate in England.

The South East and South West of England sent more than 116,333 tonnes of plastic to be recycled between 2017 - 2018.

That’s 19% of the total amount of plastic waste sent to be recycled across the UK and 5% more than in the North of England.

The report shows the 67,810 tonnes of plastic that the South East sent to be recycled could be used to build a 15-times taller version of the British Airways i360 tower in Brighton, standing 2,576 metres high rather than its actual 162 metres.

The South West sent 48,522 tonnes of plastic to be recycled, the equivalent of 143 Stonehenge structures, while the amount of plastic sent to be recycled in Scotland would have been enough to rebuild The Forth Bridge.