Single and green?

The new solo-living cohort are young (25 to 44), far more flush than the thrifty jar-reusing widows that once ruled the one-person roost and, as it turns out, the biggest consumers of energy, land and household goods.

Now that their numbers are shooting up, people who live alone represent what Joanna Williams, a sustainable development professor at University College London, calls "an environmental time bomb."

From washers and dryers to toasters and television sets, singletons burn through just over twice as much energy per capita as those who live in a four-person household.