| Every year in England alone we throw away | | | | costly. |
| some 25.5 million tonnes of rubbish in our waste | | | | Much of our recycling is also exported abroad |
| bins and it increases each and every year as we | | | | added further environmental costs to our rubbish |
| throw more and more rubbish away, and the | | | | disposal as well as causing environmental problems |
| population continues to expand. | | | | in many of the developing countries this rubbish |
| That's enough rubbish to fill every Premiership | | | | gets shipped to. |
| football stadium in the country and with such large | | | | Landfill |
| quantities of rubbish, litter and trash, it's a miracle | | | | Sadly the majority of what we throw away in |
| we are not all knee deep in filth. | | | | our rubbish bins ends up in landfills. A landfill is just |
| While most of us aware that our rubbish has to | | | | a dump where items are permanently stored until |
| end up somewhere, few people take the time to | | | | the landfill is full and then it is covered over. Some |
| think where all this waste is going and whether or | | | | items on landfill sites slowly degrade, especially |
| not we will ever run out of capacity on our | | | | organic waste but a lot of what is dumped on our |
| burgeoning landfills. | | | | landfills can last for years and years. |
| There are really only three methods of dealing | | | | However, landfills are not all bad news. The gases |
| with household waste and each comes with its | | | | produced by rotting rubbish is now being |
| own costs and disadvantages: | | | | harvested as a source of energy and many |
| Recycling | | | | former landfills whilst unsuitable to build houses on |
| Perhaps the preferred and most eco friendly | | | | are often turned into nature parks or other green |
| method of dealing with waste and rubbish is to | | | | environments. |
| recycle it. Recycling is just a term to describe | | | | Incineration |
| reusing materials, either in their original guise or by | | | | In areas where there is insufficient space |
| breaking them down to their raw materials. Paper, | | | | incineration is still regularly used to get rid of |
| glass, metal and a whole host of materials can be | | | | rubbish. Incineration is perhaps the most |
| reused and recycled which reduced the amount | | | | environmentally damaging method of removing |
| of waste that is just dumped on landfill. Many | | | | rubbish but in many areas there is little choice. |
| households now have recycling bins for separation | | | | The energy from the incinerators can be |
| of these items. However, not everything we | | | | harvested though so it is not all bad news when it |
| throw away can be recycled and it can often be | | | | comes to burning rubbish. |