Recycling Facts

Most are eager to help our environment by recycling and they might be more willing if they knew some important recycling facts. Recycling is essential to green living and conserving our Earth's resources so that future generations will have enough of all nature has to offer.

Tin, aluminum, glass and some plastics can be recycled.

If you are aware of the need to save resources and to reuse products, or help out so that they can be used again, then you are well on the road to recycling. Today recycling is commonplace in the United States. Whereas ten years ago many were unfamiliar with this practice, now schools, businesses, churches and offices, as well as homes are on the track to recycling.

Keep the following tips handy:

• Use your recycling bin both at home and in your office. Offices generate a lot of paper usage and waste.
• Learn to think about products and whether or not they are biodegradable (easily decomposed).
• Buy items that are made from resources that can be recycled. For example, every year Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. Although convenient to use, these cups are not recyclable and therefore take up precious landfill space.
• Teach your children and those around you to make recycling cans, glass and paper a lifestyle practice.

For those who want to know why recycling is important, consider these facts:

• Most new aluminum cans are made from 50 percent recycled aluminum.
• Enough energy is saved by recycling one aluminum can to run a TV set for three hours.
• A steel mill which uses recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by at least 70 percent.
• Recycled aluminum is made into pie pans, new cans, house siding, small appliances, and lawn furniture.
• Creating one ton of recycled paper uses only about 60 percent of the energy needed to make a ton of virgin paper.
• Seventeen trees are saved for each ton of recycled newspaper.
• The average American uses 650 pounds of paper during the course of one year. 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all the used paper was recycled.
• Recycling steel and tin cans saves 74 percent of the energy necessary to produce them.
• If every American household recycled one out of every ten HDPE (high density polyethylene) bottles, this would keep 200 million pounds of plastic out of landfills every year.
• Today most bottles and jars contain at least 25 percent recycled glass.
• Recycled plastic is made into plastic lumber, clothing, insulation for sleeping bags and ski jackets, flower pots and car bumpers.
• In the US, 95 percent of scrap automobiles were recycled in 2000. This was at a rate of 25 cars every minute.

Recycle the paper you use every day.

Stores sell earth-friendly tableware, containers, and even trash bags. You can also order these products online at the following sites:

• Biodegradable Store
• Simply Biodegradable

Make these recycling facts part of your everyday life. We can change the way we use resources one person at a time. As you learn and pass on your knowledge and passion for recycling onto others, they too, can become more efficient and effective at recycling. In order for us to continue as a thriving society, recycling facts must play a vital role in the life of every citizen of the United States. Support the companies and industries which are noted for recycling, and encourage those who are not, to step on the road to saving our environment.

Remember that when discarded items are placed in your regular trash can, they will be used to cover landfills. When items are placed in the recycle containers, they will be reused to make new products.

• Ways to Prevent Global Warming
• 50 Specific Actions of Green Living
• Examples of Sustainable Development

• United States Recycling Statistics
• Types of Pollution
• Air Pollution Statistics
• Effects of Water Pollution
• Advantages and Disadvantages of Biofuels

• Benefits of Recycling
• Facts About Recycling Paper
• School Recycling Programs
• How to Start a School Recycling Program
• Importance of Recycling