Living alone is a waste?

[Trousersnake]

PEOPLE who live alone use more energy and create more waste that those in a family, says a new report.

And one-person households are on the rise, with single men aged between 35 and 45 being the largest group now living alone.

In 1971 only 18 per cent of homes belonged to single dwellers. But that figure rose to 30per cent by 2001. Experts say single households will account for more than a third of the population by 2026.
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Loners use 42 per cent more packaging, 55 per cent more electricity and 61 per cent more gas than four people who live together.

They produce 1,600kg of waste annually compared to the 1,000 kg created by a family of four, says a report by the UCL Bartlett School of Planning.

Source: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2z34eh

Lets have a pick at these claims. Saying whether you agree, or disagree with it and saying why (or why you partially agree or disagree)

Personally I do live alone and don't agree with this although do appreciate some of what it says.

In my situation I moved out of home and cut done on all energy and water whether I can, not to mention the waste I throw away.

I am 21 and it's a 2 bedroom appartment I own and live in. It is not connected to gas in any way.

Because I moved somewhere closer to work I no longer have to drive to work, the place is smaller and is of double brick construction so its heating and (I imagine) cooling requirements are less. I turn most of my appliances off instead of on where I would in shared housing. I do things like watch TV in the dark where at home it was the norm to have the light on.

I would assume that they think those living alone use more packaging in the form of "single serve" which in my case anyhow isn't the case. I will cook a few things at a time and have the excess for another meal which is because I'm lazy but also lessens the times my stove/oven/grill is turned on and off (although it's most likely on longer to cook the larger meals).

So anyhow I think in my situation anyhow that it's the same if not better.

[RAOVQ]

think about it.

lets take something like watching tv. lets pretend it takes one watt per hour the tv is on. with four people watching at once, it counts as .25 watt each. with someone on thier own, it is one watt per hour, four times as much. the electricity useage is still the same, but it is averaged over less people. the same with ovens, a meal for four quaters the bill, but a person on thier own will still use the oven for the same amount even though there is only one person. ditto for lights, heaters, aircon, radios etc. they many people use them at once, and it averages out the electricity per person.

they don't buy in bulk most of the time, hence the pakaging (what does one person want with 3L of milk that will go off in a week?). of course it is cheaper and better to buy bigger packets and store them, but most living on thier own don't due to spoilage and personal reasons. someone buying for four will always buy the larger more economical size.

as for a single person using far more electricty than a family of four and producing more rubbish, i call bullshit. i think that perhaps they meant to say that a person on thier own produces more rubbish than an individual living in a household with four people. but it is the mirror, and it is a fucking shit paper, so it's to be expected.

[RAOVQ]

i found the paper through my uni's webpage.


The first stage of the analysis confirmed the inverse relationship between
household size and domestic energy consumption (gas and electricity) per capita. It
showed that one-person households consumed between 23% and 77% more elec-
tricity and 38–54% more gas than two or four person (all adult) households per
capita respectively. It also demonstrated an inverse relationship between the
quantity of space (land) consumed per capita and household size. It showed that
one-person households consumed between 45% and 65% more space than two or
four person (all adult) households per capita respectively.



it's all per capita. the mirror has no fucking idea what it is on about.

[Wraith]

RAOVQ covered exactly what I was going to say. People living alone use up more electricity per person, but not as a whole number per household.

Although, if you are an energy conservative person, living at home can make it better - it's easier to have less lights on, and just use generally less electricity if you are the only one, and you don't have to deal with another person's needs.

The news has some validity to it, but not the way they said it.

[Slave of the Beast]

it's all per capita. the mirror has no fucking idea what it is on about.

The Mirror probably does, the people who read it probably wouldn't.