Random facts 4

From Sustainable Community Action

The idea of these pages is fairly simple - to build up a collection of 'random' facts - not really random, something to do with sustainability or the need for it, or similar related facts. The collection is used to stock today's random fact on our home page. Remember of course to include the source. Within the sections please put most recent edits at the top.

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Contents 1 Natural resources 2 Noise UK 3 Participatory budgeting 4 Patio heaters 5 Plastic bags 6 Road Safety 7 Reduce, reuse, repair & recycle UK 8 Reduced dependence on cars UK 9 Rewarding work 10 Rural issues

[edit] Natural resources

• Almost 40 million people are involved in fisheries globally and 90 percent of these are employed in small-scale artisanal fishing. Source: The Tyranny of Free Trade: wasted natural wealth and lost livelihoods, December 2005, FOEI

[edit] Noise UK

• Parts of our cities are now 10 times noisier than a decade ago. Source: Sheffield University, 26 July 2001, see: www.ukna.org.uk / Environment quality UK

[edit] Participatory budgeting

• Participatory budgeting, first developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1988 to engage the urban poor in setting community-level budgets, had spread to some 200 - 250 municipalities in Brazil by 2006 and been adapted in cities worldwide. Source:Worldwatch Institute
• Between 2000 and 2006, the total number of cities with participatory budgets grew from 200 to roughly 1,200. Source:Worldwatch Institute / Community involvement

[edit] Patio heaters

• The Energy Saving Trust has estimated that a propane patio heater with a heat output of 12.5kW will produce around 34.9kg of CO2 before the fuel runs out (after approximately 13 hours). This is equivalent to the energy required to produce approximately 5,200 cups of tea (or 400 cups for every hour of operation) Source: Friends of the Earth, Energy Saving Trust

[edit] Plastic bags

• On a global scale, some areas of the sea surface are contaminated with more than 960,000 items of plastic per square kilometre. About one million seabirds choke or get tangled in plastic nets and other debris every year. And about 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, other marine mammals and sea turtles suffer the same fate. Source: The Wildlife Trusts, December 12 2007

• About 13 billion single-use plastic bags are distributed each year in Britain: 10 per household each week. On average, we use each plastic bag for just 12 minutes, yet they take 500 to 1,000 years to break down. Then there is the climate-change aspect to think about: Plastic bags are manufactured using oil. Cutting their useage in Britain by a quarter would reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 63 tons a year – equivalent to taking 18,000 cars off the road. Source: The Wildlife Trusts, December 12 2007

[edit] Road Safety

• Each year, traffic accidents kill about 1.2 million people and injure up to 50 million more. Source: Worldwatch Institute

[edit] Reduce, reuse, repair & recycle UK

• Around one and a half tonnes of packaging is thrown away every second in England alone and makes up over 40% of the waste disposed of by households. The amount of waste being produced is increasing by 3% a year and will cost more than £2.5billion to collect and dispose of this year alone. Source: The Local Government Association (LGA), July 2006
• The UK (around 27million tonnes) sends about twice as much rubbish into landfill as France (around 13million tonnes), and more than twice the amount that Germany does (around 10million tonnes). Source: Local Government Association, January 2007. Figures for municipal waste in the European Union taken from 2003/4 statistics as they are the most recent comparable figures.

[edit] Reduced dependence on cars UK

• More than two thirds (70 per cent) think the Government is not doing enough to improve public transport. Source: Friends of the Earth, April 11 2008

• 40% of all journeys in the UK are under 2 miles in length – distances easily covered by up to 30 minutes of brisk walking. Nonetheless, 38% of these journeys are currently by car. Source: Institute for European Environmental Policy, August 13 2007

• Between 1997 and 2006 the cost of travelling by car decreased in real terms by 10%. The corresponding costs of travelling by train increased by 6%, and by bus by 13%. Source: Hansard Debates, July 17 2007, Campaign for Better Transport, September 27 2007

• Great Britain makes a higher proportion of its motorised journeys by car than any other European country except Norway. Source: Commission for Integrated Transport: Are we there yet? A comparison of transport in Europe, 2007. Campaign for Better Transport, September 27 2007

• Transport accounts for around 26 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions. Source: Campaign for Better Transport, September 27 2007

[edit] Rewarding work

• Half of the (UK) working population, 52% of men and 48% of women, say they want to work more flexibly. 60% of people support the right to request flexible working to be extended to all. Source: Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), January 2007.

[edit] Rural issues

• 79% of (UK) respondents said they visited the countryside for leisure purposes at least a few times a year or more frequently. 19% said they visited once a week, 10% once a fortnight, 16% once a month, 9% once a quarter, 25% said a few times a year. 8% said they never visited the countryside, 8% said less than once a year, 4% only once a year. Source: CPRE

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