Recycling Facts and Figures
Earth Day is right around the corner. What better time to talk about recycling? We've all been told how important recycling is to the environment, but have you ever wondered how beneficial it is to us and to the environment? The simple act of recycling conserves the use of resources, energy, and space used in landfills.
Here are some facts and figures about the benefits of recycling.
- We Americans generate 21.5 million tons of food waste annually. If this waste were composted instead of being sent to landfills, we'd reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as taking more than two million cars off the road.
- Although recycling is the most common method of preventing plastic waste, less than 1% of all plastic products are recycled in the US. Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour!
- Recycling one plastic bottle saves anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the landfills, and saves the environment from emissions caused by producing new bottles.
- For every 1 ton of plastic that's recycled, we save the equivalent of 2 people's energy use for 1 year, the amount of water used by 1 person in 2 month's time, and almost 2000 pounds of oil.
- Because so many aluminum cans are recycled, they account for less that 1% of the total US waste stream.
- By recycling glass or aluminum, we save the Earth in power usage, water and oil usage, and landfill usage. Glass takes up to 4000 years to decompose in a landfill, but can be recycled indefinitely.
- Every 1-ton of paper that's recycled saves roughly 3.5 cubic yards of space in a landfill, 17 thirty-foot pulp trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil, 4100 kwh of energy. Plus, 60-pounds of air pollutants will be eliminated.
- The amount of wood and paper thrown away, not recycled, each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
The average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash per day, and 1.5 tons of solid waste each year. Even though 75% of that waste is recyclable, only about 30% is recycled. Recycling is an important step to preserving our environment. It takes just a few minutes of your time, but its impact will benefit future generations.
We have a full line of “green” products to choose from. If you have questions about any of them, or how they can help your company "Go Green," please give our Technical Support Reps a call at 800-631-1246. They'll be happy to help.
www.environment-green.com; www.greenwaste.com; www.greenhq.net