Recycling Facts and Figures

April 22nd is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. We thought it an appropriate time to give you some facts about recycling that can you can use at work and at home.

• Leaky faucets that drip at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water each year. A leaky toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water every day, or 73,000 gallons per year.
• Lighting consumes up to 34 percent of electricity in the United States.
• Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are an energy-saving alternative to incandescent bulbs. They produce the same amount of light, use one-third of the electricity, and last up to ten times as long.
• Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, and 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity – enough energy to power the average home for five months.
• Recycling paper instead of making it from new material generates 74% less air pollution and uses 50% less water.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
• Glass never wears out. It can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled.
• The steel industry's annual recycling saves the energy equivalent to electrically power about 18 million households for a year.

Northern Safety takes recycling very seriously. We've implemented several go-green initiatives over the past several years. Perhaps the most impactful was changing our white shipping boxes to brown boxes. The new boxes are made from a minimum of 40% recycle content. We've also replaced the air-filled packing pillows with brown paper. These changes minimized the amount of chemicals needed to produce the packaging materials, and increased its recycle-ability.

We've also made internal improvements. We've created efficiencies in our heating and cooling systems; we're using "green" cleaning products; recycling empty ink cartridges; using our printing paper more efficiently; and we've increased our efforts to recycle paper, plastic, glass, cans, and bottles.

In addition, we've added more "green" products to our catalog, and are partnering with suppliers who are as serious about preserving the environment as we are. One of our largest suppliers, Moldex, has committed to using PVC-free materials in their products. In fact, Moldex was honored with the Wesfarmers Supplier of the Year Award for Recognition of Excellence in Sustainability for their commitment to the environment.

We're proud of the progress we've made in increasing our sustainability and decreasing our carbon footprint. We've got more work to do, but we're fully committed to preserving our environment for the generations to come. We hope you'll join our efforts.

Source: www.oberlin.edu/recycle/facts.html

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