It is time to realise that when it comes to recycling the UK is an environmental laggard. The most recent Defra statistics reveal that less than a third of household waste is recycled or composted, which is a long way behind our European neighbours with Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany already recyling around 60% of their waste.

That said the UK has tripled the amount of waste we are recycling over the last ten years and the aim is to get this figure up to 50% by 2020. This figure is still quite low considering that between 65-80% of household rubbish can actually be recycled.

We have set out below some further information that should help persuade you why we should be making every effort to recycle.

Recycling in your area: To find out more about the recycling facilities in your own area visit www.reuze.co.uk, www.recycle-more.co.uk or contact your local authority. The Recycle More website allows you to type in your postcode and see what recycling facilities are available to you.

Paper and Carboard: The amount of waste paper buried each year would fill 103,448 double decker buses, which if parked one behind the other the line would stretch all the way from London to Milan (source: Waste Watch).

Metals: An important point to note is that you can recycle your aerosol cans, just like you would any other steel or aluminum container. We also get through 5 billion drinks cans each year – each can could be recycled, which would save a tremendous amount of energy and raw materials.

Plastics: Most types of plastic can be recycled and the next time you throw a plastic bottle away remember that globally, an estimated one million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from entanglement in, or ingestion, of plastics.  A

It is worth noting that recycling just one plastic bottle can save the same amount of energy to power a 60 watt light bulb for 6 hours.

Electrical Goods: There are a lot of organisations and charities (even schools!) that will recycle electronic equipment for you. The Waste Online website is a great place to start and contains a useful list of places that recycle all sorts of electrical goods. If the electrical product has a crossed out wheelie bin on the packaging then it cannot be thrown out with the rest of the household waste and should be returned to the retailer.

Glass: This is one of the best materials for recycling because it can be recycled time and time again, which saves energy and raw materials. On average, each family in the UK consumes around 330 glass bottles and jars per year (Source: British Glass), so there is a lot of glass that can be recycled!

Garden & Kitchen Waste is responsible for over 40per cent of household waste and organic matter is the main cause of methane emissions from landfill sites. The best step you can take is to try composting instead of binning it. For more information on composting Directgov has an excellent guide to help you.

If you don't have a garden to compost in, some local authorities have set up community composting sites. Visit the Community Composting Network or the Composting Association.

Hazardous Waste: Some items do contain hazardouse materials and need to be disposed of carefully to avoid environmental problems such as contaminating land or causing water pollution. Make sure you dispose items such as paint, batteries and oil at a proper facility and contact your local authority for further information.