Sustainable Ideas...
Recycling May 14, 2008
The Benefits of Recycling: Let's Talk Trash
Seven Interesting Facts You May Not Have Heard Before
Sure, recycling benefits the environment in a variety of ways- it uses fewer resources, reduces landfill waste, etc etc. We’ve all heard about the three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in case you live under a rock) a thousand times before. With that in mind, we’ve compiled this list of seven facts about recycling that you may not have heard before, in the hopes that this newfound information will invigorate you to take your own personal recycling initiatives to the next level (which, if you’re looking at this website, are probably already pretty stellar in the first place). Here goes:
1. To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down. If every American recycled just one tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
2. A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf in as little as 60 days, creating a highly efficient closed recycling loop. If thrown away, aluminum cans will stay intact in can form for over 500 years.
3. Over the course of one year in the U.S., the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18 million homes.
4. Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
5. Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles an hour (!), most of which are thrown away. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
6. Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that could have been composted.
7. On average, every American produces about 4.4 pounds of solid waste per day, amounting to almost a ton of trash per person, per year.
You already knew recycling was important. When you examine some of the statistics, however, the numbers are pretty staggering. So pack up your plastic bottles and head to a processing plant already. What are you waiting for?
Sources:
Want to find out more about recycling?
Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?
Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide
The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard
Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art
Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It
Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!
Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?
