Recycling is the processing of used products to provide the raw material to make new ones. When you take materials to a bring bank or put them out for the local authority to collect, they have not at that point been recycled - although they have been collected for recycling. They are yet to be processed, ready for recycling, and then made into a new product, at which point they have been recycled. The recycling process isn't really fully completed until we buy the products that have been made from the recycled materials.

WWF says that if everyone in the world consumed as much as the average person in an industrialised country - and emitted carbon dioxide at the same rate - we would need at least another two planets.

Britain, France, Italy and Ireland are among Europe's "dirtiest" countries, with most municipal rubbish dumped in landfill sites.

Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Canada and some parts of the United States, on the other hand, find ways to use a much higher proportion of their waste.

Unsurprisingly, countries that achieve high recycling rates generally force or encourage households to sort their rubbish into different categories - such as glass, metals, paper, organic and food waste and plastic packaging.

It is estimated that around 25.4 million tonnes of waste was collected from households in England in 2004. That's over one tonne of waste per household per year!

Although household rubbish is a relatively small percentage of the total amount of waste produced, it is a highly significant proportion because it contains large quantities of organic waste which can cause pollution problems, as well as materials such as glass and plastic which do not easily break down.

Whats in your bin?