It can be easy to think that the actions of one person can’t make a big difference to the fight against climate change.

But if everyone thought like that how would anything get started or achieved? 

You – yes, you – can make a difference. You’re going to be living on our planet for many more years to come so it’s in your interests to make it a good place to live. It’s because of individuals like you taking action that other people start to act, and then more and more. Before you know it, lots of people are taking action and then you really have made a difference.

Here, pupils from Academy 360 in Sunderland, give their three top reasons why they think it’s important to recycle:

1 Why reduce, reuse or recycle? Every eight months the UK produces enough waste to fill the biggest lake in England – Lake Windermere (which is 10.5 miles long and a mile wide!). A year’s worth of rubbish fills one and a half lakes!

2 The energy saved from recycling one can is enough to power a TV for three hours. How many cans do you get through in a month? If you recycle one can a day, you save enough energy to power a TV for 90 hours, that’s nearly four days solid!

3 The energy saved from recycling one plastic bottle is enough to power a lightbulb (60 watt) for six hours. The average UK household uses 373 plastic bottles a year and recycles only 29. Those 29 bottles still add up to a saving of 174 hours of light. Recycle all 373 and you’ve saved 2,238 hours, that’s three months’ worth of light!

If those numbers don’t have you reaching for the recycling box these will!

 In 2008 more than half of all the UK’s glass bottles and jars were recycled. This recycling saved the equivalent of 475,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas CO2 which is the same as taking 150,000 cars off the road for the whole year. The UK is recycling more each year so the results should be even better this year.

 In the same year, UK shoppers picked up 9.9 billion new carrier bags, an average of 400 per household. It takes 180,000 tonnes of oil (a fossil fuel that one day will run out) and produces
the same amount  of greenhouse gases that 100,000 cars make. If everyone picked up half the amount of plastic bags, over a year we’d save 90,000 tonnes of oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking 50,000 cards off
the road.

 It takes 800 litres of water to make one T-shirt. If every household recycled two T-shirts a year, we’d save as much water as you can fit in 16,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools!

As First News has reported, the world leaders at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen didn’t get very far in making a lasting agreement to cut carbon emissions. So, that means it’s up to the world’s youth to step up and make a difference! Every action you take makes a difference. And every action you encourage your family, friends and neighbours to take makes a bigger difference.

So, what are you waiting for? Don’t forget to write and tell us what you do to help fight climate change.