Bank holiday festivities will bin 40 million bags of rubbish

Britain is set to fill over 40 million bin bags with rubbish over the next three days as the bank holiday weekend begins, a new study suggests.

Litter left over from the Notting Hill Carnival (Credit: Nando Machado / Shutterstock.com)

The fun and festivities taking place mean many people will forget their green credentials, with almost a fifth of the waste generated not being recycled, the Sodastream study says. Furthermore, 10% of that non-recycled waste will consist of plastic bottles.

The most wasteful cities in the UK when it comes to bottle waste will be Newcastle and Sheffield, with Brighton and Bristol the least wasteful. According to the research, half of those surveyed admitted to not feeling guilty about the waste they produce.

The study has also ranked our 'top five bad habits' which include throwing away food, not recycling food packaging, buying/using too many plastic bottles and then throwing them away.

Sodastream commissioned the research to highlight the practice of 'pre-cycling' - reducing waste before there is any need for recycling.

Maxine Perella